[Richard230]

Here is a long, but interesting article that was in my newspaper today regarding the tough future for gas stations in California when EV's become even more abundant than they already are. Apparently many of the independent gas station owners are dreading the future, especially after 2035 when nothing but new zero-emission vehicles will be sold.

[GlennF]

Some will survive supporting recidivist ICE drivers with vintage vehicles, the rest will need to support EV charging which will gradually get to be profitable over time or just close down.

Not really any different to the companies that supplied coke to households and factories in my region, or for that matter all the local factories in every town supplying slab ice and all the small regional breweries.  Sometimes you need to just read the way the wind is blowing and plan accordingly, tilting at windmills is pointless ( it is not as if overthrowing the US government and putting Trump back in charge to lock up all the "woke greenies" will change anything, the entire planet is moving this way whether people like it or not) .
.

[AzCal Retred]

Adapt & change or join the buggy whip factories, sliderule factories, kerosene lamp industry, etc.  History is littered with defunct industries. Personally I think that unless batteries achieve at least 50% of the energy density by weight & volume of liquid hydrocarbon fuels, "gas stations" will still exist, just selling synthetic fuels made from bio-waste & landfill plastics. That tech already exists, it just needs to be widely applied.

[Arschloch]

https://www.latestly.com/socially/world/new-greta-thunberg-calls-the-possible-shutdown-of-nuclear-power-plants-in-germany-a-latest-tweet-by-disclose-tv-4316310.html

....for what ever reason Greta is promoting now nuke plants, somehow she figured it´s better than cole. However, she seems to be brighter than most of our politicos who believe all power can be made from solar, wind + battery.

[AzCal Retred]

How many times do I have to explain that power just spontaneously appears out of the wall sockets? 

Not much CO2 from a Nuke. If the Thorium cycle got dusted off we'd have power "So cheap we'd not even bother to meter it..."

Just too bad Thorium isn't a good source of Plutonium, that was one of the original Cold War incentives for U235. . Ya just gotsta have your priorities straight I guess. At present we can only blow up the world about 40x times over...obviously not enough plutonium around yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle
The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses an isotope of thorium, 232Th, as the fertile material. In the reactor, 232
T is transmuted into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 233U which is the nuclear fuel. Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts of fissile material (such as 231Th), which are insufficient to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. Additional fissile material or another neutron source is necessary to initiate the fuel cycle. In a thorium-fuelled reactor, 232
Th absorbs neutrons to produce 233U. This parallels the process in uranium breeder reactors whereby fertile 238
U absorbs neutrons to form fissile 239Pu. Depending on the design of the reactor and fuel cycle, the generated 233U either fissions in situ or is chemically separated from the used nuclear fuel and formed into new nuclear fuel.

The thorium fuel cycle has several potential advantages over a uranium fuel cycle, including thorium's greater abundance, superior physical and nuclear properties, reduced plutonium and actinide production,[1] and better resistance to nuclear weapons proliferation when used in a traditional light water reactor[1][2] though not in a molten salt reactor.[3][4][5]
In the twenty-first century thorium's claimed potential for improving proliferation resistance and waste characteristics led to renewed interest in the thorium fuel cycle.[8][9][10] While thorium is more abundant in the continental crust than uranium and easily extracted from monazite as a side product of rare earth element mining, it is much less abundant in seawater than uranium.[11]

A 2011 MIT study concluded that although there is little in the way of barriers to a thorium fuel cycle, with current or near term light-water reactor designs there is also little incentive for any significant market penetration to occur. As such they conclude there is little chance of thorium cycles replacing conventional uranium cycles in the current nuclear power market, despite the potential benefits.[16]

[GlennF]

How many times do I have to explain that power just spontaneously appears out of the wall sockets? 

Do make sure you turn the switch off when nothing is plugged in or the power will leak out when you are not looking.

[Arschloch]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300

... Thorium seem to have worked out really well back then. 

[AzCal Retred]

...never seen early flight videos?

[Arschloch]

...never seen early flight videos?

... somehow I doubt the major issues were of technical nature. 

[Richard230]

I still prefer air-powered electrical generators fueled by political hot air. Certainly an inexhaustible supply, although it does contribute to Global Warming.   

[AzCal Retred]

... somehow I doubt the major issues were of technical nature.

Seriously? At a time when budding aero-engineers mostly just "gave it a shot" and then advertised for disposable "test pilots" (no experience required) in the local paper? It took a while before even "Weight & Balance" and dynamic center of effort got the attention they deserved. It took a pile of dead guys to finally get down to what reliably worked. Even the great NACA airfoils didn't really have an audience until the 30's, about 30 years too late for a lot of heroes & geniuses

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9Yww9LG3gw

[cyrusb]

As for the filling/gas stations, I think they were gone years ago. Here on Lawn Guy Land most all had their repair bays converted into mini marts. The only auto related items they sell are oil, washer fluid and stink trees. You can find these items mixed in with the bongs and crack pipes. You can buy bottles of water or get air for 50 cents from a pump that doesn't work.
 But as has been mentioned above industries ebb and flow. Here on LI we had the most radiator shops per capita in the U.S. Every town had at least 2. The salt air raised hell with the copper. Then the industry went to plastic and anodized aluminum. Now there are none, and good riddance, big tanks of nasty chemicals.
  An industry I am sad to see disappear is the Automotive machine shop. I remember them being manned by some pretty smart dudes.

[Richard230]

As for the filling/gas stations, I think they were gone years ago. Here on Lawn Guy Land most all had their repair bays converted into mini marts. The only auto related items they sell are oil, washer fluid and stink trees. You can find these items mixed in with the bongs and crack pipes. You can buy bottles of water or get air for 50 cents from a pump that doesn't work.
 But as has been mentioned above industries ebb and flow. Here on LI we had the most radiator shops per capita in the U.S. Every town had at least 2. The salt air raised hell with the copper. Then the industry went to plastic and anodized aluminum. Now there are none, and good riddance, big tanks of nasty chemicals.
  An industry I am sad to see disappear is the Automotive machine shop. I remember them being manned by some pretty smart dudes.

What about high school auto shops and auto driving classes? These classes bit the dust in California long ago, leaving only (sometimes) music programs and school libraries, along with sports, of course. Now hardly anyone knows how to service and repair their own cars and driving is left up to new license holders to figure out on their own. I have a granddaughter who has been trying to learn how to drive a car with a permit for the past year and is still scared of driving anywhere but around town on a Sunday morning.

[GlennF]

Now hardly anyone knows how to service and repair their own cars

Acquiring and learning to use the computer equipment needed to tune everything from the EFI through to the transmission is very much an enthusiast hobby these days due to the cost and the learning curve.

[Karl Childers]

I think Cali's projected date of 2035 is a well intentioned pipe dream that is counting on the technology to be up to the task by then. Prior to that date the realization that it will take more time and that electric vehicles across the board are not the entire solution to every motorized need will sink in and you will see a mix of ICE and EV's on the road in that state in that not too distant future. The intension is good and California has led the way for the other 50 states in pollution control but it is going to take more time and not a legislative magic wand to have what will turn out to be a compromised goal than what is imagined now.