2020 election

[Speaker to Animals]

In Asheville, most of the roads are 45 mph and lower, but you can easily get around just on the 35 mph roads. On the hills you just kick on the battery motor, and then charge it where the road is flat.

That's what you are going to see after peak oil. Shit like that will be everywhere.

[The Conservative]

I think electric vehicles are fine, but I think you need to consider hydrogen and natural gas as a primary fuel for anything large like a tractor. Petroleum after the impact of peak oil is fully realized will likely be used only for plastics and things like jet fuel.

The way I see energy coming out:

(1) big time expansion in nuclear energy, probably thorium based.
(2) electric vehicles for transportation, but also human powered cars for what remains of large cities.
(3) Much more localized everything, so most people will not travel far at all compared to today.
(4) Hydrogen and natural gas will power a shit ton of larger vehicles like ships, trains, etc.

Electrical vehicles are a terrible product right now, the materials to produce then do more outward environmental damage than an oil or natural gas car.

That being said, natural gas would be a good idea, but I don't trust drivers on the best of days, and unless they made a bulletproof container, there is no way in hell I'd trust someone with a volatile bomb strapped to the back of their truck or other vehicles.

As for localizing, not until jobs are closer to home. Most people drive 30+ minutes one way to get to a job until that changes, you won't see a lot of what you are thinking of happening actually happening.

[Montegriffo]

that's what they said about IC tractors, right up to the 1930s

And what changed? You obviously bring something up with an inkling of what changed, right?

Tanks. A factory tooled up for tracked IC tractors can retool for tanks relatively quickly.

That's not what happened here though. Tractors were imported from the US and distributed free of charge to British farmers in order to increase productivity and stop us from starving.
Farming was seen as a protected industry with farmers being exempt from the draft like miners and firemen.
We were making tanks during the first war and producing them in much higher numbers than tractors in the period up to the second war.
Farmers are deeply conservative and horses had always been perfectly acceptable for the task.
Farmers did not want to get rid of their large stables of horses and lay off their skilled ploughmen in favour of replacing them with a single tractor and driver. Farriers and vets were also seen as worth protecting.
Until labourers started volunteering in large numbers and food started running out there wasn't such a need for tractors.
The government was quick to recognise the problem and hence the mass importation and distribution of tractors.

[Fife]

[Montegriffo]

Thank Providence the Globo Central Planning Committee had the foresight to outlaw horses and oxen.

No one outlawed horses. There was a war on (for some of us) and the government recognised the need for increased productivity due to the successes of the German submarine blockade and the real threat of starvation.

[Fife]

No one outlawed horses.

No use trying to fool you.

[Speaker to Animals]

There ought to be a law.

[Fife]

I'm sure the cops and government officials will be the first to give up their Dodge Charger and SUV transport.

[Speaker to Animals]

I'm sure the cops and government officials will be the first to give up their Dodge Charger and SUV transport.

I wonder what would happen if you passed state laws that forbid law enforcement agencies from benefiting in any way from their ticket business and asset seizures.

[Montegriffo]

In Asheville, most of the roads are 45 mph and lower, but you can easily get around just on the 35 mph roads. On the hills you just kick on the battery motor, and then charge it where the road is flat.

That's what you are going to see after peak oil. Shit like that will be everywhere.

Maybe even sooner, it's not as if you can drive any faster than a bicycle in modern congested cities anyway.
Electric bicycles and scooters are already very popular. Car lanes will be turned into cycle paths and congestion charges for dirty cars will only go up.
Many city centres in Europe are already going car free for reasons of safety and clean air. Diesels in particular are being targetted. If I were to drive my 30 year old kitchen into London for a film job it would cost me £200 per day even if it was parked up for the whole production and never moved.
Small electric delivery vans are going to skyrocket in popularity. The farm's Diesel flatbed truck, used for delivering thatching straw, is getting very rusty but the ever shrewd Farmer Paul is waiting until tougher restrictions coming out in London next year flood the market with cheap 2nd hand models before he replaces it.