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Comment by linuxhansl | Hacker News Reader

How much many more wars over gas or oil do we need to finally just take the energy that (for the most part) is available locally and renewable?!

The petrol era is coming to an end. Our current administration might desperately want to remain a petrol state (for reasons that escape me), but it will only delay the inevitable. The EU is not much better either. The writing has been on the wall, and even since the Russian invasion into Ukraine not much has happened.

What is going on? Are we all insane, or is it just intense lobbying of yesterday's petrol industry?

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EVs were on track to being mainstream 20 years ago. See the other story about the 90s GM EV1 and associated documentary. All the technology was there in 1999, but every EV in development simultaneously shut down once they started becoming usable.

We're not going to pretend that energy density in batteries was anywhere near ready for prime time in 1999. Maybe niche around town cars owned by those willing to sacrifice to have something cool/unique.

The EV1 was a $70k car (2026 dollars) with economy car size and fittings, with a 75mi range and 3 hour charge time. There is no conspiracy, the tech wasn't there yet.

My point is it would have developed quicker if it wasn't shut down entirely after that.

We are clinging desperately to our horses and buggies.

> The EU is not much better either.

the share of renewables of the EU at ~55% of net energy generation is almost twice as high as China's or America's, only Latin America fairs better. Germany essentially front ran this industry 20 years ago. Although as usual it turns out better to be second than first a bit of credit here please.

> for reasons that escape me

The reasons are simple: liberals want renewable energy, therefore renewable energy is bad and must be destroyed.

It's oppositional defiant disorder on a cultural scale.

No- it’s just that people want choice, and not have to pay for tax credits (via lost government tax revenue)

There's a huge difference between getting rid of tax credits, and doing things like forcing unprofitable and obsolete coal plants to say open (https://stateline.org/2026/03/19/trump-is-forcing-coal-plant...) and attempting to arbitrarily ban free market renewable energy projects under no valid legal basis (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn7k6p6k5x5o).

Seems current admin wants less choice. No imports of EVs from countries that do it better and no support for local EV makers.

As for tax credits, sure, push policy requires spending. But then this admin has spent approximately 100B trying to reduce spending and instead increased spending, so this seems like penny-wise pound foolish

Citation needed that "the people" wanted to end tax credits on EVs. EVs were steadily increasing in popularity and capturing a growing market. In a very real sense consumers had "choice" before, in that the market supports made EVs accessible.

America has their own Cultural Revolution!

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