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Comment by rcMgD2BwE72F | Hacker News Reader

>There are no electric alternatives for most long distance transportation, which is a huge chunk of our energy consumption.

What about trains?

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At this point, there are no long distance electric trains in the US. Odd, it seems like it would be mutually beneficial to have the electric grid run on rail right of way and be used to power trains.

I imagine it would bring some ability for load balancing moving more freight during specific hours.

This seemed like a good idea at first, but I have a suspicion that it would mess with schedules.

Power lines can climb much steeper hills than trains.

Exactly! Hillclimbing is a huge weakness of trains which significantly increases the cost of rail construction.

Texas has plenty of cargo trains with a pretty sophisticated setup.

There are currently at least two groups trying to do passenger trains between Austin, Dallas / Fort Worth, and Houston. I'm not sure what they want for Federal or State money.

Trains don't get you and your overseas goods across oceans (yet).

It may not be fast, but wind power is a proven technology for that application.

It’s also not as economical. If your competitor uses shipping that’s weeks faster and more reliable, then you’re not staying in business long.

At some point, we'll make shipping companies pay for their heavy externalities (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality#Negative) and we'll have to choose between slow, clean and cheap or fast, dirty and expensive.

Shipping (boats onna water) aren't the 90% problem to solve, that is all on land. You solve that before you worry about the other 10%

Nothing is a "90% problem", even on land.

Tankers' environmental impact is disastrous, although they actually are comparatively quite CO2-efficient for shipping goods. It's just that there is so many of them now.

> (yet)

I do wonder what happened to the Transatlantic tunnel

Shipping accounts for ~2% of total US oil consumption so that's a tiny little chunk.

Source: https://3kpnuxym9k04c8ilz2quku1czd-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/w...

Air is listed right beside that, which is probably closer to what he was referring two. Combined, they sit at 10%. Not as much as he thought, but nothing to scoff at.

Neither do cars or trucks.

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