Until his retirement, Rick Sikes managed the fleet of cars and trucks operating in the city of Santa Monica, CA, a municipality generally known for its progressive stance with respect to environmental stewardship. He worked hard to integrate alternative-fueled vehicles of all types: electric, yes, but also an interesting array of hydrogen, natural gas, even propane.
I interviewed Rick as the basis for a chapter of my first book, “Renewable Energy–Facts and Fantasies,” as an example of what forward-thinking cities are capable of when it comes to phasing out petroleum. I conducted the talk on a walking tour of his facility, which features huge tanks of different types of fuel, during which I asked, jokingly, “Am I in any danger here this afternoon?”
Taking me seriously, Rick replied that gas-powered vehicles are far more likely to catch fire than EVs and the rest. In fact, there are so many of them each day that most of them don’t even make the local news.
Here we are 15 years later, and now we’re starting see the propaganda that falsely claims that EVs are extremely likely to burst into flames, an assertion refuted in this recent article in AutoBlog.
Renewable Energy
Explore Commercial Heat Pump Warranties: What Cyanergy Offers?
Renewable Energy
Handing the Keys to the Kingdom over to the Chinese
When I argue for environmental responsibility and the decarbonization of the grid, I often say:
I know there are people who believe, perhaps because this is what they’re told by Donald Trump, that climate change is a hoax. But are there people who don’t believe in cancer? In the importance of our country’s investing in the industry that is destined the dominate the 21st Century?
Trump will be gone soon. Maybe you and I will be gone (in a different sense) before the effects of this administration’s folly in the EV and cleantech industry are fully felt.
But it’s inevitable, unless we turn this around, and soon.
Renewable Energy
Small, Vertical-Axis Wind Turbines (VAWTs)
In preparation for my first book, “Renewable Energy – Facts and Fantasies,” I interviewed Ray Lane, then managing partner of Kleiner Perkins, one of the world’s great venture capital firms, who told me about his stance with his prospects, “You build the first one. I’ll invest in the next 20. Then we’ll take the thing public and use that cash to build the next 5000.”
I’m 99+% sure that the “first one” of these will never be built, i,e., installing these VAWTs at the base of functioning wind farms. The concept is asinine, as it defies the laws of fluid dynamics.

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