Paradise Gone

Ah, another thing that has been taken from us by the USG. I know what you are thinking …. the TSA. No, the TSA has taken away some liberties, and forced submission to genital checks by people most people probably wouldn’t hire to watch their children, but it has not taken away the freedom of movement.

No, freedom of movement is slowly being taken from us. So slowly that we don’t even know it is currently happening or how it is being done.

We are constantly reminded by the liberal media that we have hit peak oil and are going to run out by the mid 2020s. Refinery construction has basically ceased to exist in the USA. Even one refinery going offline for a short time results in disruption of oil markets and an immediate spike in the price of gasoline at the pump because demand exceeds current production capacity. Yet since 1967, only 16 refineries have been built with a total capacity of 1,341,980 barrels per day. The USA uses 19.15 million barrels per day, yet new capacity of less than 10% of consumption has been built in this country in the last 45 years (note: there has been capacity added to infrastructure built prior to 1967, but we must remember that these are 50+ year old facilities).

A gas station fuel pump provides gasoline at a rate of less that 10 gallons per minute. The average fuel tank of a car is generally sized to hold enough gasoline for 300 miles of combined city and highway driving. If fuel flows at 9 gallons per minute and our example station sells gas to only mid-size cars with 17 gallon gas tanks and we allow 2 minutes for payment, we see that this gas station with 8 pumps can fill 120 cars per hour.

Electric cars ranges of 100 to 300 miles on a nice average day, on cold days batteries can lose up to 50% of their ability to provide power. Fast Charger recharge times range from 15 to 45 minutes to return to 80% state. Let’s make some assumptions for our test cars. Our test cars have a 200 mile range and can recharge in 15 minutes and our electric car charging station has 8 spots and uses a subclass of the Level 3 charger known as the Fast Charger. These 8 spots will be able to recharge 32 cars per hour. The Fast Charger is an intelligent 5 pin plug that is able to transmit data. To re-power as many vehicles as a gasoline station our charging station would need roughly four times as many spaces and 32 lines each capable of providing 440 volt 400 amp power (note: continual use of Fast Charger has been said to lower the range of the batteries in the case of the Nissan Leaf, the preferred Level 2 chargers of the Leaf require a 7 hour over night charge).

Now imagine another Hurricane Katrina hits a city in which Electric Vehicles are the norm. Or that urban vandalism destroys a significant portion of the power grid. The government is going to be in a situation where it is going to have to recommend staying put, i.e. declare martial law. Travel will be unlawful and violators will be able to be tracked via the “intelligent 5 pin plug” used for charging at Level 3 stations. Cash or credit is not going to be an option for Level 3 charging stations which will bill directly to your electricity provider. Unless someone has the ability or lack of urgency to stop for 7 hours while a full charge takes place with a slower Level 2 charger after traveling the range of the vehicle, travel will be not be possible. And do it again once the vehicle’s range has been traveled. And again. A five hundred mile trip in an Electric Vehicle could easily take days if one was to intentionally avoid using Level 3 charging stations. The very issues associated by travel with Electric Vehicles will be the reason that during emergencies that martial law will become the norm.

Thus we will be restricted to our villages, to either act as the residents of Fukushima in the aftermath of the tsunami or, or as those of New Orleans did in the after math of Katrina. In other words, in most metro areas in this country, it means the shit hits the fan.

Our movement is currently free from restriction in this country, except in the case of air travel. Without an identifying tracking device, be it either user implemented (iPhone) or government installed, a person with a pocket full of cash can go pretty much anywhere he or she wants in this country without leaving a trail. That will end with the Electric Vehicle.

Now I made be a little ahead of the game in making the above statement and declaring that the government is taking away the “freedom of movement” by promoting Electric Vehicles, but very few can wait 7 to 24 hours for a car to recharge just so they can go another two to three hundred miles, so expedited charging stations will become the new gas stations and use will require consent that information identifying who and where will be transmitted for this “privilege”.

Sources:

http://www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp?id=0423

http://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.cfm?id=29&t=6

http://www.indexmundi.com/united_states/oil_consumption.html

http://community.nasdaq.com/News/2012-05/obama-usa-and-oil-prices.aspx?storyid=141052

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ene_oil_con-energy-oil-consumption

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oil_refineries

http://evsroll.com/Electric_Car_Charging.html