There are free charging locales for which you don't have to pay at all. There aren't free gas stations where you don't have to pay at all.
There would be a lot more had the investment in the infrastructure been sooner and more. There are a few at the community airport, more at the Target parking lot. Others at the mall parking lot. The ones the airport are usually free.
Let's also keep Solyndra in context. American Recovery and & Reinvestment Act = $830 Billion Solyndra = $535 Million (loan) e.g. .0006% of the total investment. Using your "breaking eggs" analogy, that is probably about the weight of the skin found on that outside of an egg, actually probably much less than that.
Except with not having to pay the gas prices that is so much the focus of grief, handwringing and hardship.
I think a much easier solution than accelerating a transition to green energy (which as I said already, is expensive AF right now) ahead of where resources, infrastructure, and availability are....just make the gas effing cheaper. Unleash domestic production. Problem solved.
Anyone that believes we can go to complete renewables is wrong. However I don't hear many people make this claim. I mostly hear people on the left saying they want further investment in renewable sources. Wanting greater investment in renewables is vastly different than claiming that renewables right now can be the sole source of energy. Elon Musk supports whatever political party or group benefits him at any particular point in time. Further, his politics are no more relevant than Andrew Carnegie's were. Something we agree on. Nuclear power is interesting, as it seems to split both parties. I know a number of liberals that are staunch supporters and some conservatives that are strongly against it.
Tomorrow? No it couldn't. Over a reasonably short period of time? Yes. The power grid in many places needs to be updated regardless but would be a higher priority. The use of electricity will not solve all the problems, but it will make us in some ways less vulnerable to a certain cluster of countries. Having said that, we are not going to go to electric overnight or even over a couple years.
Inflation is here to stay, even after supply chain and pandemic issues are resolved. We might not get 8%, but I think 4% to 5% might be the new normal. One of the biggest reason for the low inflation for decades was globalization. Now with the US going away from globalization, we can expect higher prices in the foreseeable future. Things like climate change and world conflicts are just going to make things worse.
Nuclear is the only carbon friendly option available. No other source comes close with even close to the deaths per kilo watt hour safety record. The Dems shut down Yucca mountain so essentially **** down nuclear. They also created a problem because the mountain is stable and the alternative (concrete lots) are not.
That's only true if you need a strawman to argue against. The leftish push is not to go to zero gas consumption overnight. It's to invest in new technologies to move in that direction. Imagine what the price of gas would be right now without millions of electric vehicles replacing gas-powered ones. Imagine the price of gas without all those leftist fuel efficiency standards. The left is attacking the problem by reducing demand for gas - which should be universally a good thing. It both reduces our reliance on sketchy countries and lowers the price of gas and oil.
Yucca Mountain was designated the only place for nuclear waste disposal by the Reagan administration and that hasn't changed regardless of political party. The Yucca Mountain issue is a case of NIMBY-ism as it was the state of Nevada that didn't want it at the time. Not to mention both GOP and Democratically controlled Congresses wouldn't provide funding. However, shutting down Yucca Mountain hasn't shut down nuclear power. Biden administration launches $6 bln nuclear power credit program
Democrats have a weird relationship with nuclear energy. They endorse it on their party platform starting in 2020 but there are still individual democrats in office against it. Nuclear has prominent moderate liberal support from people like Bill Gates. Environmental groups are split on nuclear power as well.
