Utopia, you are standing in it!

One for the ‘worse than we thought’ file. Anyone running out of power in an EV in winter due to sudden cold weather range reduction has no in-car way to keep warm while waiting for rescue.

Cold temperatures can sap electric car batteries, temporarily reducing their range by more than 40 percent when interior heaters are used, a new study found.

The study of five electric vehicles by AAA also found that high temperatures can cut into battery range, but not nearly as much as the cold, reports TechXplore. The range returns to normal in more comfortable temperatures.

Teslas in Norway [image credit: Norsk Elbilforening (Norwegian Electric Vehicle Association)]
EVs are looking like yet another ‘save the planet’ fiasco in the making. Some of the points made here were already known, but these studies reinforce them. As many EVs on the road are still relatively new, the full extent of any problems may not yet be clear. With the help of large subsidies and other incentives they sell well in Norway despite the cold winters there.

According to recent studies, cold temperatures significantly reduce the performance of electric cars, especially when it comes to battery life.

One study by AAA suggested that cold temperatures can reduce the range of the batteries in most electric cars by over 40 percent, reports Anonymous News.

It was also noted that the performance can be even worse when the interior heaters are used.

Labour’s rating  with  voters has  dropped   to its lowest in  two  years, according to  the  latest  Colmar  Brunton  poll.   This has provoked a  flurry of  action  by   ministers,   with  a  $400m  new spend on  schools  and  promises  of   big  infrastructure  projects  to  be  announced  in the  half-year  fiscal  update.

Finance  Minister  Grant Robertson    is sticking to his mantra  that the   economy  continues to grow at faster rates than the countries it compares  itself    with, notably  Aust, the UK    and   the  US—even though the Treasury   says  overall NZ GDP growth  is likely to  fall below Budget forecasts.

Two  per cent  GDP  growth  is  hardly  likely  to  create  any  surge of  enthusiasm,  especially if it keeps trending down.  For the  man and woman in the street,   cost of living  inflation  is  eroding  the impact of   any  recent  wage  increases.

As  for  the  politics,   the  government’s  claim  for its performance  in  what was  …

Proving, yet again, that the absence of mandates, targets and massive subsidies the wind industry would disappear in a heartbeat, the decision to cancel hundreds of government contracts with wind power developers in Ontario has left rent seekers furious, and wondering where their next meal might come from?

Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford couldn’t conceal his delight in announcing the demise of hundreds of projects, thereby avoiding thousands of these things being speared across Ontario’s rural heartland. Not to mention saving power consumers hundreds of millions of dollars, over the long haul.

Doug Ford ‘proud’ of decision to tear up hundreds of green energy contracts
The Canadian Press
Shawn Jeffords
21 November 2019

Premier Doug Ford said Thursday he is “proud” of his decision to tear up hundreds of renewable energy deals, a move that his government acknowledges could cost taxpayers more than $230 million.

Ford dismissed criticism that his Progressive…

The law of unintended consequences rears its ugly head.

Christian Britschgi | 12.2.2019 – Reason

The results of plastic bag bans and restrictions are frequently disappointing, and occasionally counter-productive. Take the United Kingdom, where a country-wide bag fee is encouraging consumers to switch from single-use bags to thicker, reusable bags that use more plastic.

Last Thursday, Greenpeace and the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit, released a report on the plastic consumption of British grocery stores that found they were actually using more plastic even as customers switch from using thin, disposable plastic bags to thicker reusable “bags for life.”

The report found that use of these “bags for life” increased from 960 million in 2018 to 1.5 billion in 2019. That’s a big single-year increase and well above the 439 million reusable plastic “bags for life” dispensed by the seven largest British grocery stores in 2014, according to a…