Best way I’ve seen to explain solar power and EVs to a right winger is tell them I don’t have to fill my car with expensive Saudi oil, I make good clean American electricity when the sun hits my roof and I use it to drive around. If oil was worthless because we have better forms of power, we could stop caring what some Arab princes think we should be paying to drive to work.
Which is another security thing, I just didn’t include it because I was typing on my phone and running out of time. But yes, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, and all the other OPEC countries that your conservative uncle likely has a long history of not liking will lose influence if their oil revenues plummet.
Also, gas goes bad and it can easily become contaminated by something as simple as moisture building up, after which it will damage engines if used. Not to mention that dangers of fire or leaks. The sun won’t hit its expiration date for a few billion years, and for the most part the worst thing that can happen with solar is that efficiency goes down slightly if the panel needs cleaning.
You can appeal to self-sustaing types or prepper logic as well. Way easier to make your own electricity then it is to extract and refine your own oil. EVs will remain operational much longer after societal collapse then gas powered vehicles will.
Isn’t that one of the things many Americans want? To be self-sustaining and to not rely on others for their energy? Or am I getting this wrong? (silly european here)
A good friend of mine uses very little energy (just a smol fridge, a router, a smol TV and a phone charger) and he can actually get by easily with his solar panels up top and some batteries he got.
He barely has to purchase any energy anymore, sometimes even in winter.
Electric motors also require far less maintenance and have far fewer ways they can break down. Oh, and if you live in a cold climate, you can warm it up in the garage without killing yourself.
And actually, if we reach a point where a solar roof and battery are the norm, and basically every vehicle on the road is an EV, civilization collapse becomes that much more unlikely. There’s no longer a domino effect of the grid going down, pumps and refineries stopping, supply chains collapsing, and technology ceasing to function. Disruptions would be far more localized and their impact would be drastically reduced.
Best way I’ve seen to explain solar power and EVs to a right winger is tell them I don’t have to fill my car with expensive Saudi oil, I make good clean American electricity when the sun hits my roof and I use it to drive around. If oil was worthless because we have better forms of power, we could stop caring what some Arab princes think we should be paying to drive to work.
Which is another security thing, I just didn’t include it because I was typing on my phone and running out of time. But yes, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela, and all the other OPEC countries that your conservative uncle likely has a long history of not liking will lose influence if their oil revenues plummet.
Also, gas goes bad and it can easily become contaminated by something as simple as moisture building up, after which it will damage engines if used. Not to mention that dangers of fire or leaks. The sun won’t hit its expiration date for a few billion years, and for the most part the worst thing that can happen with solar is that efficiency goes down slightly if the panel needs cleaning.
You can appeal to self-sustaing types or prepper logic as well. Way easier to make your own electricity then it is to extract and refine your own oil. EVs will remain operational much longer after societal collapse then gas powered vehicles will.
Isn’t that one of the things many Americans want? To be self-sustaining and to not rely on others for their energy? Or am I getting this wrong? (silly european here)
A good friend of mine uses very little energy (just a smol fridge, a router, a smol TV and a phone charger) and he can actually get by easily with his solar panels up top and some batteries he got.
He barely has to purchase any energy anymore, sometimes even in winter.
Electric motors also require far less maintenance and have far fewer ways they can break down. Oh, and if you live in a cold climate, you can warm it up in the garage without killing yourself.
And actually, if we reach a point where a solar roof and battery are the norm, and basically every vehicle on the road is an EV, civilization collapse becomes that much more unlikely. There’s no longer a domino effect of the grid going down, pumps and refineries stopping, supply chains collapsing, and technology ceasing to function. Disruptions would be far more localized and their impact would be drastically reduced.