CAN CALIFORNIA REPLACE DIESEL TRUCKS WITH ELECTRIC TRUCKS? IF NOT, WHAT THEN?
California is proposing to ban diesel semi trucks and replace them with electric trucks.
DERRICK JENSEN: Just as of the last couple days, California is in the process of banning diesel semis by 2040 or something.
First off, I'm not interested in saving civilization. I'm not interested in fueling the economy. I'm interested in saving wild nature. But “Bright Green” environmentalists explicitly are interested in saving civilization and the economy. They say again and again we're trying to save civilization.
One of the problems is that gas and diesel are incredibly energy-dense forms of storing energy. So if you have a semi tractor, it can go about 600 miles on a tank of diesel. I can have about a 60,000 lb. payload.
Diesel has energy density of about 45 megajoules per kilogram. It doesn't matter what a megajoule is here. The important thing is just the number 45.
Lithium-ion batteries--like in Priuses or Teslas--have an energy density of about one megajoule per kilogram. What that means is that lithium is (one forty-fifth) 1/45 as energy dense. Lithium has just over 2% the energy density of diesel fuel.
And what this means is that you could have a semi to have a range of 600 miles. You'd have to have like 50,000 pounds of batteries for a 16,000 pound payload, you've only got five thousand pounds left of to ship.
I don't understand. It seems like California is attempting to wave a magic wand because this won't work.
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For the entire interview with Derrick Jensen, please click on the YouTube video.