US diesel hits record $6 a gallon on Iran supply shock
ft.com
ft.com
https://www.aldi-suisse.ch/de/ueber-aldi-suisse/unternehmen/...
320km doesn't seem like a long distance for a truck, curious how that works in practice
Trucks have a lot more space for batteries, so with EV trucks it's all about balancing range and weight for the task. More range means less useful load.
Watch some of these https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXNB7Q_d1qC0mFjn6bt8YvQ
Saudi Arabia’s crude output falls to lowest level since 1990 https://finance.yahoo.com/energy/articles/saudi-arabia-crude...
Why would they use Claude? Iran, China, and Russia have far more advanced MRBM systems than the US. So unless Claude is training on top secret info that the US military doesn't even have, they would be getting worse information than just talking to their allies.
(But $10k in student loan relief? That's Socialist!)
Seriously, just call it a 530A and smile.
For me, it doesn't matter because my main mode of transport is an EV - but it's a luxury I can afford. Many people that live around me cannot.
It just means these people donate more of their money to the wallets of already absurdly rich owners of companies like Shell and Exxon - instead of using it to enrich their own lives (see the increased profits these companies are making since Iran).
But at least on a positive note, EV sales in my country have never been higher since Trump invaded Iran, so it is somewhat triggering the well-off to finally make the ("scary") switch to EV's.
It is somewhat amazing that Europe hasn't embraced electrification even more but taxing diesel use to encourage using it wisely is a smart geopolitical play given their situation.
Taxation on crude oil and its byproducts is largely for each member state to decide, as is electrification policy.
In some cases the EU steps in; for example with CO2 emission quotas, electrification targets, and largely regulating how countries operate in between them (for example, if France sells energy to Spain, it has to follow some bloc regulations if I am not mistaken).
I find it somewhat amusing how people insist in commenting on EU as if it was something it is not.
Then singling out EU countries becomes silly.
EU (collectively or independently) is distinct only in that it is ahead of the pack on many of these topics, hence why the Netherlands diesel price is higher than the US price, as noted by the comment I replied to.
But EU countries could and should still go further.
In fact, as someone that lives in one of those countries, I am actually viewing the events in the middle east with optmism. The closure of Hormuz and Bab-el Mandeb are the sort of harsh push that we needed to get out of our collective asses and cut our dependency on a resource that is in every angle you look at terrible for those who depend on it.
I am not naive, and I know that it is not possible to cut it entirely (oil is used for more than fuel). But if we stop depending on it for vehicles, electricity generation, heating and ao on, it will make a huge difference already.
"Since war is not an act of senseless passion but is controlled by its political object, the value of this object must determine the sacrifices to be made for it in magnitude and also in duration. Once the expenditure of effort exceeds the value of the political object, the object must be renounced and peace must follow."
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Clausewitz would have been flabbergasted by this war. If we're being overly generous to Trump, we might call it an act of senseless passion. The reality is probably worse. The U.S. still hasn't seemed to figure out what it's policy goals or winning conditions are, aside from the president's desire to be an all-powerful winner. Trump seemingly places no value on his nation's blood or treasure, so it might be a very long time before he begins to feel the effort his nation is expending isn't worth the value of his own vanity.
The U.S. needs to have its magna carta moment and reign in its mad king. Maybe that will come with the mid-terms, or maybe this war will drag on for two more years. Trump isn't going to stop it, now or after the mid-terms. As far as he's concerned, the pain isn't his.
No reason to assume that we can change either. 99.99% of progress we enjoy today came from burning non renewable shit, if you think we can change paradigm while keeping all our cheap convenience and technologies I think you're making a bigger bet than I am
Making and using a modern solar panel emits up to 44 grams of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas per kWh over its lifetime as opposed to up to 1000 grams for fossil fuel generators.
That's 20x cleaner.
https://iea-pvps.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/IEA-PVPS-LCI...
The Chinese economy has real weaknesses make no mistake about it and a competent US leader could have worked with his global allies to exploit them.
You don't strengthen an enemy (Russia) by buying their products. Defence is more important.
> as well as shutting down reactors
A German problem, not a wider European one.
The solution is to accelerate the transition into electric vehicles (including HGVs etc.), renewable energy, and nuclear. Oil is obviously still needed for materials production, air fuel, and so on, but extricating ourselves from situations where oil is becoming optional as fast as possible is the best course, not continuing to buy cheap gas from an aggressive neighbour that's fucking your elections and invading its neighbour.
Europeans decided to construct Nord Stream 2 to completion (finished 2021, but never certified for operation).
Nord Stream 1 was shut down by Russia in 2022.
Turk Stream pipeline (from Russia to Bulgaria) finished construction/began operation in 2020.
Also true is that another pipeline called Balkan Stream connects to Turk Stream to transport the Russian gas into Bulgaria, Serbia, and Hungary, and went into operation in 2021.
https://n1info.rs/english/news/balkan-stream-gas-pipeline-op...
We've been doing fine championing our nationalism instead of creating a strong internal market.
Because Hungarians decide in Hungary and Spaniards in Spain doing business across Europe is still very tough.
So to transport anything from Austria to Hungary you need to fill all the kind of paperwork and find the appropriate codes. And to sell it, even more complicated. And taxation? Don't get me started.
And it doesn't help most of our economies are all export economies, which is a broken economic model where you just keep hemorraging stuff and your people stays relatively poor.
The worst part of all this is that becoming more export focused was pushed heavily by Germany during the euro crisis, and now its causing more problems.
Honestly, I'm coming round to the notion that Angela Merkel was literally wrong on everything she ever touched.
Mind you, German political culture consistently makes the wrong decisions (basically in hock to the ICE car industry, which has aged badly).
In a world where the Russo-Ukrainian conflict doesn't happen she was fine.
In a world where it does, suddenly an export economy hungry for materials and energy suffers the lack of Russia.
The German (so not just her) position on the post financial crisis reforms were wildly misguided, and her taking in of Syrian immigrants also didn't end well.
I think that shutting down the nuclear plants would also have been recognised as a bad idea, even without the war.
Syrian refugees.
They were escaping a civil war, they weren't looking for a job.
Most Germans supported taking the refugees as of 2015, less opposed it.
As for nuclear, Germany already had decided to phase it out before Merkel, in fact, her government partially reversed it. But Fukushima in 2011 was the nail in the coffin.
It hasn't worked out politically, though.
Again, I'm aware, I just wish different decisions had been made.
Hell, Greta Thunberg crossed the Atlantic on a sailing ship.
I need to attend a scientific conference in the USA next month. Please can you kindly tell me how I can also sail across the Atlantic to get there?
(As an aside, my employer has already issued my burner phone and laptop; SOP for visiting countries such as the USA).
Nobody claimed we could do a systemic change without, y'know, change.
Also - while it may encourage production at other sites with a higher cost of production, higher prices in general will slow demand.
Energy can be replaced by renewables. There are alternatives for various uses of plastics. And I thought manure was a pretty good fertiliser.
Not everything needs to be replaced, but it would help a lot if we replace what we can.
That is of course a stupid lie.
But it's amazing how many smart liars say something similar to "China controls 70℅ of the global wind market" without clarifying that they install nearly all of that in China because they installed 73% of new wind capacity in 2025.