Earlier quoted context omitted.
And taxing aviation fuel will make the rich pay trough the nose for their „privilege“. Which is good. What do you propose?
No. It's not good. It enables the rich to travel while locking out others. A fair system would ration access to a scarce resource based on need.
France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
131–140 of 149 posts
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
No. It's not good. It enables the rich to travel while locking out others. A fair system would ration access to a scarce resource based on need.
Perhaps there should be a hefty aviation fuel tax that works inversely: basically, the more you buy at once (per plane), the lower the tax is, by a very large amount. So, if you're refueling an A380 super-jumbo or a 777, your fuel tax is very low, because those planes need a LOT of fuel. If you're refueling a 737, it'll be significantly higher, to penalize short routes. If you're refueling a small private jet, it'll…
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#133Earlier quoted context omitted.
it's a very famous fact that the fesseinhem nucleae power plant, for example, was an electoral deal between socialist party and the green one. But more importantly, the idea that the "renewable energies" had to be pushed forward aggressively, despite all data showing it couldn't replace nuclear or fossile, is a general gospel spread by green activists throughout the world. Political parties saw that the population we…
Fessenheim is the proof that the state of the other nuclear plants is not the result of the greens: Fessenheim only does not explain why the other nuclear plants are in disarray. The situation for Fessenheim is in fact more complicated (the condition to close Fessenheim was to open Flamanville, proof that the government was pushing to maintain nuclear and was not at all anti-nuclear). Well, you seem to not know the d…
Solar and wind projects were made interesting only through a high level of market-rigging legislation, forcing edf to buy back electricity produced at a much higher cost than nuclear.
Our current abysmal state of energy infrastructure is the result of very politically oriented policies. not science. Hard facts never showed one could replace nuclear power plants with anything else. We actively made ourselves a net importer of electricity.
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#134Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't understand why you keep asking. I'm saying i expected unanticipated side effects to happen. Just like anytime you disrupt a well established market ( like public transport in france), with arbitrary decisions based solely on politic games.
If you're going to be dismissing well-meaning political actions with hand-waving and vague insinuations that it's ecobullshit, one would hope you could do better than just a shrug and a "beats me".
Interfering in a market and destroying an economical activity requires proof. Simply claiming "it's good for the environment" isn't enough.
It's a purely symbolic gesture, and has 0 impact on climate.
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fessenheim is the proof that the state of the other nuclear plants is not the result of the greens: Fessenheim only does not explain why the other nuclear plants are in disarray. The situation for Fessenheim is in fact more complicated (the condition to close Fessenheim was to open Flamanville, proof that the government was pushing to maintain nuclear and was not at all anti-nuclear). Well, you seem to not know the d…
I'm not sure how you can justify destroying our existing working nuclear infrastructure with science. Solar and wind projects were made interesting only through a high level of market-rigging legislation, forcing edf to buy back electricity produced at a much higher cost than nuclear. Our current abysmal state of energy infrastructure is the result of very politically oriented policies. not science. Hard facts never…
The working nuclear infrastructure was destroyed, but not because of the Greens.
In the case of Fessenheim, the closing was part of a reshuffle of the system to replace it with the more efficient Flamanville (which failed because Flamanville is having big delays, which is one aspect of the failing of the french nuclear infrastructure, still not due to the Greens). You have to understand that the electricity grid is a complex puzzle: you cannot just add an important power plant in the middle without closing other plants (if you supply more electricity than the demand, you have a blackout). I don't agree with the choice of closing Fessenheim, but the arguments behind it are way smarter than the brainwashed "it's the evil Greens". For example, when you build a new nuclear power (which costs A LOT), you need to prove it will makes profit. If at the same time, someone says "Fessenheim, planned to run for 40 years (and therefore close in 2010) will, surprise, run for more years, and will supply the electricity to the same region", then the investors of Flamanville realize that their margin will drop, and the project itself can end up being cancelled.
Closing Fessenheim was both a good politic move to calm down the Greens and the anti-nuclear population while also helping the nuclear sector by boosting the chance of success of Flamanville (removing the old tech of Fessenheim to replace it by Flamanville is a clear gain for the sector). And it was also very good for the brainwashing of the pro-nuclear who were able to pretend that they were victim of the Greens.
> Solar and wind projects were made interesting only through a high level of market-rigging legislation,
Except that nuclear is even more heavily subsidized and that there are a lot of market-rigging legislation to support a market that, normally, should fail. The nuclear market is really crazy: you need to put a lot of money based on predictions of how the electricity will look like in 10 years, crossing your fingers that all the very sensitive elements have no defect, and that you will find competent workers by then (it's not the case for renewable, which does not need huge initial investment, very sensitive elements, high training). This is basically just flipping a coin. No one wants to invest in nuclear, it's just not a good market, and it was able to exist in France only because the government was distorting the market.
> forcing edf to buy back electricity produced at a much higher cost than nuclear.
And again, this is certainly not because of the Greens. The reason is because the pro-nuclear but also pro-private sector french government decided to privatize the electricity sector in France. EDF, while public, had a lot of strong asset, so the government distorted the market by kick-starting possible competitors with this kind of non-sense. The french government idea was that if it's a free market, private competitors will magically stop draining the government money. Except that the nuclear market is way less attractive that they thought it was, and at the same time, the renewable energy market was also very unattractive in France, because the government was so pro-nuclear. So France had the worst of the two sides: no new nuclear, not much new renewable, still having to pay a lot to maintain the sector, and the owner of the nuclear power plant, EDF, now losing a ton of money and not being able to invest to maintain the quality of nuclear.
But, yeah, "it's all the Greens fault". It would be funny if such stupidity was not coming with brainwashed militants who do all they can to stop rational decisions.
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
That is not my experience at all. I fly non-stop between major US cities all the time. For smaller cities I may need to make a single connection. I live on the east coast and within 45 minutes of 2 major airports. I just did some quick checking. Following are examples of the number of daily non-stops available from them: San Francisco - 11 Las Angeles - 13 Dallas - 17 Seattle - 9 Portland - 4 Chicago - 33 St Louis -…
Anecdotally, the reverse is not true. West to East non-stop flights have been scarce as of late to many major cities, even from a major hub, compared to a few years ago. Some flights in the same direction have sometimes been faster via Canada than staying the US. I too am curious as to the shift.
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#137Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you don't think "the market" (aka people) should get to decide then you have probably have some authoritarian leanings. My argument is make the train service better so people want to use it instead of forcing them to do so.
Surely you're aware of the market distortions that are a result of negative externalities. Markets aren't perfect and recognizing that governments exist to correct market distortions is hardly authoritarian. In this case France could alternatively levy a hefty tax so that your air travel costs fully reflect the environmental damage it causes. Would that be your preference?
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Surely you're aware of the market distortions that are a result of negative externalities. Markets aren't perfect and recognizing that governments exist to correct market distortions is hardly authoritarian. In this case France could alternatively levy a hefty tax so that your air travel costs fully reflect the environmental damage it causes. Would that be your preference?
Government failures don't exist? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_failure
Re: France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel
#139Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps there should be a hefty aviation fuel tax that works inversely: basically, the more you buy at once (per plane), the lower the tax is, by a very large amount. So, if you're refueling an A380 super-jumbo or a 777, your fuel tax is very low, because those planes need a LOT of fuel. If you're refueling a 737, it'll be significantly higher, to penalize short routes. If you're refueling a small private jet, it'll…
More fuel is more pollution though.