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Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by Devils-Avocado on Monday November 02, 2020 @06:10AM (#24966759)
No, the real problem is that that the externalities of Internal Combustion Engines - noise and air pollution - are fully absorbed by society and not adequately captured with fuel taxes.

Increase fuel taxes to the level necessary for carbon neutrality and ICE vehicles look immediately unappealing.

Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by hedora on Monday November 02, 2020 @01:36PM (#24971424)
A $1 per gallon tax on gasoline is enough to make it carbon negative:

1 gallon burnt emits 20lbs of CO2, and a ton is 2000 lbs, so 100 gallons of gasoline emits a ton of CO2.

With current technology takes $15-75 to pull a ton of CO2 out of the atmosphere, or $0.15-0.75 to remediate a gallon of gasoline.

I argue a $1/gallon tax is the minimum viable, since we’ll need a carbon negative economy for the foreseeable future.

It’s not clear to me that $1 more per gallon of gas would kill ICE cars. If I ran a big auto maker, I’d actually lobby for such a tax, since it’s easier than retooling all the lines, and it pushes the cleanup costs onto legacy customers.

I personally think the tax should be paid upfront when you buy a new ICE car (assume it’ll last 100,000-200,000 miles), and not at the pump.

Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by belorn on Monday November 02, 2020 @03:08PM (#24972598)
Here in Sweden we pay about $4.5 per gallon in taxes.

ICE is still the norm in Sweden, with EC standing for 3% of all personal cars. EC have however taken a significant chunk of new sales, with last month being 35%. It also help that all government workplaces over a certain size has free EC charging, and even some shopping centers.

Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by zdragnar on Monday November 02, 2020 @11:51AM (#24970139)
That doesn't make batteries better, it just makes ICE worse. Battery research is improving, but at the end of the day we are just trading fossil fuels for massive mines- especially cobalt and nickel (with today's tech, who knows tomorrow).

At least CO2 can be scrubbed from the atmosphere.

Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by toomuchtodo on Monday November 02, 2020 @12:50PM (#24970874)
Lithium is evaporated from brine ponds, and cobalt is actively being phased out in battery chemistries because of its role as a conflict mineral. Battery storage for all use cases is objectively better than burning a fossil fuels.

> At least CO2 can be scrubbed from the atmosphere.

There is no evidence we can scale this up besides planting trees and hoping for the best.

Re:The Case Against More Ethanol (2016) by pessimizer on Monday November 02, 2020 @12:47PM (#24970827)
> That doesn't make batteries better, it just makes ICE worse.

This doesn't mean anything. Better is always relative.