{"id":1288,"date":"2007-01-12T07:38:20","date_gmt":"2007-01-12T12:38:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/but-plug\/"},"modified":"2007-01-12T07:38:20","modified_gmt":"2007-01-12T12:38:20","slug":"but-plug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/but-plug","title":{"rendered":"But, plug?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a piece from Cato fellow Jerry Taylor on the hype for plug-in hybrid cars<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Of course, if [plug-in hybrids] really were <\/em>the wave of the future, there would be no need for ranting in Washington — automobile manufacturers would be busy making them as we\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0speak. It\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s only when corporate\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0America is cool to an idea that the prophets\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0turn to the taxpayer or the regulator. This illustrates Taylor\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s law — \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cthe commercial\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0merit of any particular technology is inversely\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0related to the degree of political tub-thumping heard in Washington for said technology.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s the issue I have with these proposed cars: just because they use less gasoline doesn’t mean they’re better, because their power still has to come from somewhere. “Plug-in” doesn’t mean its power miraculously appears from a wall-socket. It means that the electricity infrastructure has to deliver power to keep a car going. Given that we’ve received plenty of alarms about how The Grid is doomed to collapse as our electricity demands keep rising — and that a large portion of that electricity is generated by burning coal — I don’t get how plug-in cars are going to “solve our oil addiction” without creating even greater problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a piece from Cato fellow Jerry Taylor on the hype for plug-in hybrid cars: Of course, if [plug-in hybrids] really were the wave of the future, there would be no need for ranting in Washington — automobile manufacturers would be busy making them as we\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0speak. It\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s only when corporate\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0America is cool to an idea … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “But, plug?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-implicit"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-kM","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7629,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-pod-kit","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":0},"title":"The Pod-Kit","author":"Gil","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Someone asked me recently for a breakdown of what equipment I use to record my Virtual Memories Show podcasts. At home, I use a Blue Yeti USB microphone with a Blue Universal pop filter. It feeds into my Mac Mini and I do the audio capture in Audacity, because I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002VA464S","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":913,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/you-cant-fire-me-i-quit","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":1},"title":"You can’t fire me, I quit!","author":"Gil","date":"April 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Fawaz Turki explains \"How To Lose Your Job at a Saudi Newspaper\" What mattered was that I had committed one of the three cardinal sins an Arab journalist must avoid when working for the Arab press: I criticized the government. The other two? Bringing up Islam as an issue and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Politics (explicit)"","block_context":{"text":"Politics (explicit)","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/politics-explicit"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5609,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/what-it-is-10410","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":2},"title":"What It Is: 10\/4\/10","author":"Gil","date":"October 4, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"What I'm reading: That Iliad. Patroklos just went down, so things are about to get out of hand. What I'm listening to: Sir Lucious Left Foot, A Friend of a Friend, In Our Nature, and some Steve Earle. What I'm watching: Boardwalk Empire, Bored to Death, and Eastbound & Down.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B000H4EELK","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4008,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/dont-crate-me-in","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":3},"title":"Don’t Crate Me In","author":"Gil","date":"June 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Ready for another Rufus update? I thought so! Our boy went to the animal hospital for surgery today, and all went wonderfully! The vet said that he managed to stitch up the entire rear wound, and about 80% of the front wound. If the sutures hold up (read: if we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Rufus and\/or Otis","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-rufus-and-or-otis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2876,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cant-start-a-fire","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":4},"title":"Can’t start a fire","author":"Gil","date":"November 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I meandered around a Borders store for the second time in a week! This time, my wife was getting her hair cut on Saturday afternoon, and I figured I could spend a little time among the books to feel guiltier about not participating in National Novel-Writing Month. (I really meant\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":792,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-mean-streets-2","url_meta":{"origin":1288,"position":5},"title":"The Mean Streets?","author":"Gil","date":"January 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's a lengthy article about the \"Red Light District\" of northern NJ, South Hackensack. It's about 25 miles from where I live, and one of our close family friends used to be a night-manager at the main motel that's profiled. The writer seems a little conflicted about what to make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "suburbs"","block_context":{"text":"suburbs","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/suburbs"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1288\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}