Re: General Motors quietly closed the door this week on a goal to make only electric vehicles by 2035.

On Fri, 18 Jul 2025 19:02:00 -0500, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

On 7/18/2025 6:41 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:

On Fri, 18 Jul 2025 17:53:39 -0500, AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:
 

On 7/18/2025 5:20 PM, Beej Jorgensen wrote:

In article <105ca6p$1lci9$10@dont-email.me>,
AMuzi  <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

The few remaining steam trains are curiosities, not actual commercially
viable transport.

>
I was lucky enough to ride commercial steam trains in India in the 80s.
They're long gone, I'm certain.
>
But I was surprised at the extent of electrified rail in Norway when I
visited a couple years back--over half their rail is electrified and
takes you considerable distances, e.g. Bergen to Oslo to Trondheim.
>

>
We have electric service here too beyond subway systems,
mostly interurban lines:
>
https://www.chicagorailfan.com/interxma.html
>
With Norway's hydropower resources, that makes sense.
Here in USA we rip out dams (sigh). Cry over pathetic chart
here:
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=2130

 
That's graph is from 2010 and a poor choice of data for US hydro
power.  Methinks this is better.
<https://www.caiso.com/todays-outlook/supply>
It's CAISO (California Independent Service Operators) which covers 9
western states.  More of the same:
<https://www.gridstatus.io/live/caiso>
The pie chart currently shows large hydro at 7.7% of the total and
small hydro at 1.1%.  It used to be much higher.  (Notice that small
hydro is considered renewable energy while large hydro is not).

Good links but I was specifically looking for something with
a long time scale and the 100 year chart shows the
nonsensical abandonment of hydropower well.

How about these?  (Please have you magnifying glass handy).

"Nonfossil fuel energy sources accounted for 21% of U.S. energy
consumption in 2022"
<https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=56980>
Seem to show an increase in hydro power production.

"US Energy Consumption by Energy Source 2009"
<https://www.today.com/money/good-graph-friday-energy-we-consume-6c9677953>
Pie chart shows that in 2009, 35% of US energy consumption was hydro.
Going from 35% to 8.8% (combining large and small hydro) in 2025, is a
rather large drop in 16 years.

"US Energy Consumption"
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_energy_consumption.png>
The graph only goes to 2015, but does show a large drop in hydro
consumption starting in 2008.

"Energy supply worldwide from 2018 to 2024, by fuel type (in
exajoules)"
<https://www.statista.com/markets/408/topic/436/energy/#statistic2>
Rather difficult to read, but if you drag your mouse over the graph,
the numbers will show drop in hydro from:
   2023  39.65 exajoules
to:
   2024  16.03 exajoules

Sorry, but I'm out of time and strength.  I'm sure I can find more
graphs.  For searching, I used:
https://www.google.com/search?q=US%20energy%20sources%20consumption%20graph&udm=2>
and looked for relevant graphs.  Bug me if you want me to dig deeper.
I haven't tried using AI to find something better.


--
Jeff Liebermann                 jeffl@cruzio.com
PO Box 272      http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Ben Lomond CA 95005-0272
Skype: JeffLiebermann      AE6KS    831-336-2558