Stephan: The European nations, like many Asian nations, are committed to making the transition out of the carbon energy era and are creating policies to make this happen. But it is turning out to be more complicated than many thought. What they are learning is that to make the transition work there must also be a concurrent well-thought out and financed national program to create the charging infrastructure to maintain electric vehicles.
Hopefully, the Biden administration will reverse the Trump bias in support of carbon energy, and will get the United States back on track with the rest of the developed world and, because of our nation's size, it is going to require a nationwide program. What comes to mind for me is something on the order of President Eisenhower's national program to create the interstate highway system.
Electric vehicle sales are soaring in Europe — in November, plug-in vehicles accounted for 16% of the overall auto market in the UK, over 20% in Germany, and an oil-slaying 80% in Norway. However, a lack of charging infrastructure threatens to spoil the party. According to a new report by the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA), the availability of charging infrastructure in the EU still falls far below what is needed and remains unevenly distributed across member states.
The second edition of “Making the Transition to Zero-Emission Mobility,” an annual study of EV adoption in Europe, reports that sales of plug-in vehicles in the EU increased by 110% over the past three years. During the same period, however, the number of charging points grew by just 58% (to under 200,000).
“This is potentially dangerous, as we could soon reach a point where growth of electric vehicle uptake stalls if consumers conclude there are simply not enough charging points where they need to travel, or that they have to queue too long for […]
Peter Landers and Chieko Tsuneoka, Reporters - The Wall Street Journal
Stephan: The conversion to electric vehicles is not going to be painless or easy in any country, as this story from Japan illustrates. Car companies like Toyota are resisting the conversion, at least at the scale and speed the Japanese government wants. In the United States which, thanks to Trump, has no national program for the conversion out of the carbon era and is woefully behind what is already happening in Europe and Asia, the Biden administration is going to have to immediately plan for and set up a nationwide program, or the United States will become a hodgepodge of state programs. California leads the way, but the Red value states seem to have hardly begun to think about this transition.
TOKYO—Japan said it planned to stop the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by the mid-2030s, bucking criticism by Toyota Motor Corp.’s chief that a rapid shift to electric vehicles could cripple the car industry.
The plan released Friday followed similar moves by the state of California and major European nations, but it has faced resistance from auto executives in a country that still makes millions of cars annually that run solely on gasoline engines.
Japan would still permit the sale of hybrid gas-electric cars after 2035 under the plan. Many models from Japan’s top car makers—Toyota, Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. —come in both traditional and hybrid versions.Power ShiftMost cars sold in Japan still have traditionalgasoline engines.Japan vehicle sales in millions, 2019Source: Japan Automobile ManufacturersAssociationNote: Excludes minicars2.551.420.1650.037GasolineHybridClean dieselElectric car/plug-in hybrid/fuel cell
Earlier this month, Toyota President Akio Toyoda said that if Japan banned gasoline-powered cars and moved to electric vehicles too hastily, “the current business model of the car industry is going to collapse.” He was speaking on behalf of Japanese auto makers in his role as head of a local […]
Stephan: At one level this is a wonderful story of heartfelt generosity. Good news, no question. At another level, it is a monstrous story because it brings into sharp focus the obscene wealth disparity in the United States. One generous woman in this country can give away $6,000,000,000 and still be a billionaire while 40% of American families could not write a $400 check in a crisis.
MacKenzie Scott
On a Monday evening in November, Dorri McWhorter, the chief executive of the Y.W.C.A. Metropolitan Chicago, got a phone call from a representative of the billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. The news was almost too good to be true: Her group would be receiving a $9 million gift.
Between the pandemic and the recession, it had been a difficult year for the Chicago Y.W.C.A., which runs a rape crisis hotline and provides counseling to women on jobs, mortgages and other issues. Money was tight. Ms. McWhorter shed tears of joy on the call.
Similar scenes were playing out at charities nationwide. Ms. Scott’s team recently sent out hundreds of out-of-the-blue emails to charities, notifying them of an incoming gift. Some of the messages were viewed as possible scams or landed in spam filters. Many of the gifts were the largest the charities had ever received. Ms. McWhorter was not the only recipient who cried.
All told, Ms. Scott — whose fortune comes from shares of Amazon that she got after her divorce last year from Jeff Bezos, […]
Stephan: My wife and I have had an isolated Christmas, as I suspect many of you have as well. It has left me with time to think about things and I find myself appalled and disgusted by the Republican Party. I simply cannot understand how ethical compassionate human beings consciously choose to cause serious difficulty and misery for millions of men, women, and children. I don't know how you face your own conscience, how you read the inevitable stories we will all see over the next few days. If this is not resolved by the end of this day America will be seriously damaged making it that much harder for the Biden administration to repair what has been done. I have read in history how a country destroys itself, but never thought I would live in one.
Kevin McCarthy
On the morning of Christmas Eve, the House Republican leadership blocked Democratic legislation that would provide $2,000 relief checks to Americans struggling to stay afloat amid the coronavirus pandemic and economic crisis, obstructing direct payments long supported by progressives and endorsed earlier this week by President Donald Trump.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) attempted Thursday morning to request unanimous consent for an amendment that would increase the $600 relief payments in the newly passed coronavirus relief package to $2,000, but the Democratic effort failed because House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) refused to approve the request.
“They can keep blocking and expose which side they are on. We will keep fighting.” —Rep. Rashida Tlaib
“The House GOP is spending this holiday season trying to block $2,000 survival payments for families struggling to keep food on the table,” tweeted Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). “Unconscionable.”
After Hoyer’s unanimous consent request was rebuffed, House Republicans attempted at the behest of the president to pass an amendment to reexamine foreign aid provisions in […]
Stephan: This has been an awful year, both personally and as a society, for many of us as I have learned from the correspondence I have received from readers. I am sorry to have had to post so many depressing stories this year, but when I started SR back in 1991, I did so making the commitment to myself and my readers, that I would publish only the most accurate and important facts about trends that I could discover, without concern for partisanship or special interest. My standard was to support the fostering of wellbeing at every level for all the beings that make up earth's matrix of consciousness.
I think we stand at a crossroads now, and that in 2021 we have a choice. We can either continue down the path we are on now, or we can take the debacle of the Trump years as a wake-up call, and make the decision to turn from that path which so clearly leads to misery, illness, death, and destruction, and instead rededicate ourselves to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.
The choice is ours, and each of us must make it, and express it not just in our attitudes but, also, in the small decisions we make each day. Ask yourself: If not us? Then who? And if not now, then when? Your Christmas gift to yourself, your family, and all the beings on earth can be that your choice from this Christmas day forward is that all your choices will be the option that fosters wellbeing. There is no finer gift we can give ourselves.
