Investment in American Infrastructure

[goldenvalley]

Aug 14, 2022 2:20:10 GMT LFC said:

The Inflation Reduction Act passed the House. The funny part is how Republicans are twisting themselves in knots (a.k.a. lying) to try to score some kind of political points.

Republicans’ False IRS Claims

During the hours of debate ahead of the vote, many Republicans coalesced behind the same (false) talking point: that the bill will mean the employment of 87,000 new, armed IRS agents who will target middle-income families.

The 87,000 number comes from a 2021 Treasury Department report, specific to previous legislation, which estimated that funding from the Biden administration would allow the hiring of 86,852 full-time IRS employees by 2031.

Despite the Republican spin, not all of those employees will be working in enforcement, but will be spread across various departments. The IRS has been hollowed out and is struggling to shoulder its workload. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen also directed the agency this week not to increase its audit rate on households making less than $400,000 a year.

There was much back and forth between House members on the non-issue. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) first made the false claim, at high volume.

A chuckling Rep. John Yarmuth (D-KY) called it a “totally fabricated number.” “And that they’re armed?” he began.

“I know that Ms. Boebert would like everybody to be armed, as they are in her restaurant, but that’s not what IRS agents do,” he quipped.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, sent out a statement responding to the claims Friday morning.

“Given the social media chatter we’re already seeing, it’s all too easy to imagine individuals using these conspiracy theories as justification for violence against public servants and their families,” he said. “It’s unbelievable that we even need to say this, but there are not going to be 87,000 armed IRS agents going door-to-door with assault weapons.”

Either this is another SQUIRREL moment or it's a "death panels" moment.  Either way it is pure made up s*#t.

[LFC]

Democrats have apparently started to learn to play by Republican rules.

Wait, Are Dems Being Sneaky Strategic?

As experts and journos pour through the language of the Inflation Reduction Act, it seems there’s more and more to like about its climate change provisions.

It also begins to look like Democrats snuck a few things under the noses of Republicans (was Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) in on it, too, or was he the gullible mark?).

Case in point: The new law contains robust language declaring carbon dioxide emissions a pollutant under the Clean Air Act, Lisa Friedman reports in the New York Times. That effectively reverses the Supreme Court decision earlier this year in West Virginia v. EPA, which found that Congress had not explicitly authorized the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions.

Republicans weren’t completely fooled, the NYT reports:

In the hours before the legislation passed the Senate, Republicans fiercely fought the language behind closed doors, according to three Senate aides who were involved in the discussions.

[LFC]

You'd never get this out of Republicans. In fact we didn't get any infrastructure bill out of Republicans, even when they controlled the Senate, House, and Oval Office. It's almost like they don't actually want to spend on infrastructure.

Tesla, General Motors, Ford, and other auto manufacturers are stepping up their electric vehicle charging game to receive federal funding. The Department of Transportation announced new standards on Wednesday that stipulate EV chargers must meet certain made-in-the-U.S. criteria, as well as be useable across vehicle makes in order to be eligible for the billions in funds allotted through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“Effective immediately, all EV chargers funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law must be built in the United States,” wrote the White House in its statement. Plus, “the new standards will ensure everyone can use the network – no matter what car you drive or which state you charge in,” the Biden Administration added.

In broad strokes, the Department of Transportation is hoping to to get half a million EV chargers built nationwide by 2030—about ten times the number of stations currently in place, according to Pew Trusts. The agency is also aiming to “electrify” more than 75,000 miles of highway across the U.S. in that same time period—all while boosting American manufacturing and encouraging a home-grown EV-revolution.

In addition to the domestic production rules, the new standards will require that charging is “a predictable and reliable experience,” with consistent plug types and power levels, and charges functioning at least 97% of the time. Further, the DOT has declared that chargers should be easily findable and that drivers won’t have to use multiple different apps or accounts to use chargers.

Through the promise of federal investment (and the corresponding threat of losing that funding source), the Biden Administration has gotten Tesla—the U.S.’s biggest EV and charger company—to agree to open its “U.S. Supercharger” and “Destination Charger” networks to non-Tesla vehicles. Up until now, although the company’s basic chargers are non-proprietary, Tesla’s high-speed chargers have only been available for use by Tesla vehicles, and no adaptors have been available on the market. Now, that will have to change.

[pnwguy]

Feb 15, 2023 19:36:37 GMT LFC said:

You'd never get this out of Republicans. In fact we didn't get any infrastructure bill out of Republicans, even when they controlled the Senate, House, and Oval Office. It's almost like they don't actually want to spend on infrastructure.

Up until now, although the company’s basic chargers are non-proprietary, Tesla’s high-speed chargers have only been available for use by Tesla vehicles, and no adaptors have been available on the market. Now, that will have to change.

One more reason for Elon to support Putin and the GOP.  Freedumb to screw over those people who bought another EV!

[Bact PhD]

Nothing like waking up and finding out that a major bridge has collapsed, done in by a huge containment ship that apparently lost power & control.

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/26/how-key-bridge-collapsed-baltimore/

It’s anyone’s guess how long the harbor will be inaccessible, let alone the bridge to get rebuilt. Traffic in “Ball-mer” is gonna be an absolute nightmare for years. The hazmat traffic will be re-routed who-knows-where—I’m guessing I-695 west of the city-??—a road that’s been torn up for a half century and is already awful—??

Ugh.

[goldenvalley]

Mar 26, 2024 17:25:55 GMT Bact PhD said:

Nothing like waking up and finding out that a major bridge has collapsed, done in by a huge containment ship that apparently lost power & control.

www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/03/26/how-key-bridge-collapsed-baltimore/

It’s anyone’s guess how long the harbor will be inaccessible, let alone the bridge to get rebuilt. Traffic in “Ball-mer” is gonna be an absolute nightmare for years. The hazmat traffic will be re-routed who-knows-where—I’m guessing I-695 west of the city-??—a road that’s been torn up for a half century and is already awful—??

Ugh.

Yeah and already conspiracy theories are happening...it's a DEI bridge (because the current mayor is Black???) it's a terrorist attack! More fun to make up stuff than it is to wait to see what the forensic reports are.

[indy]

Mar 26, 2024 22:57:35 GMT goldenvalley said:

Mar 26, 2024 17:25:55 GMT Bact PhD said:

it's a DEI bridge (because the current mayor is Black???)

I would suspect it is because they think the crew and/or captain are minorities/LBQT+/immigrants. Probably all three of them in some mixture.

[indy]

Been reading a bit about the propulsion systems on these container ships. Pretty interesting and it seems there are numerous engines on the ship but the main 'big' one only does one thing, which is turn the propeller. All the other ship operations, including the hydraulics for the rudder and electricity generation are done by secondary engines. The secondary engines appear to be redundant to some degree and it's not catastrophic if one or two of them go offline as there are five or more. If the engine for the propeller fails for some reason, no big deal, the rudder will still operate so, you know, you don't run into a bridge. But reversing the spin of the propeller appears to require some time and if the secondary engines fail, the rudder essentially locks up. You can still stop the propeller and put the ship into reverse but obviously it takes time. Assuming I am understanding this correctly, this seems to be a case where a cascade of bad things happened to the secondary engines in a time window that simply made it impossible to avoid the collision.

[Bact PhD]

Interesting. There’s a piece in WaPo discussing the possibility of “dirty fuel “ precipitating that sort of catastrophic failure.