Every 30 minutes or so a football field sized piece of land disappears in Louisiana due to coastal erosion. This has been going on for decades, much reported but mostly ignored. Much of this is due to the direct effects of the oil industry (digging ship channels which kill off wetlands) and indirect effects of the oil industry (ocean rise and more severe weather from climate change). There was some relief, ironically from a major oil spill settlement. So what will happen to that money now.

Louisiana cancels $3B repair coastal restoration funded by Deepwater Horizon oil spill settlement

Since there are huge factories cranking out solar panels this isn’t a surprise. In case anyone missed it, “renewable” means that solar panel manufactured last year keeps putting out electricity next year and the year after that. So it’s cumulative; a ball rolling down a hill. Today it’s the equivalent of more than one new traditional power plant per day.

What worries me is the US reversal on renewables. It will mean we are stuck with expensive (and dirty) energy. If there was ever a recipe for countries falling behind, it is expensive energy.  From Futurism.

The Amount of Electricity Generated From Solar Is Suddenly Unbelievable

Grok, the X / Twitter chatBot went full Nazi after an update. The article discusses it but basically you only get out what you put in. Additionally, these chatBots just want to keep you talking since many bill by the minute. So they are trained to say things that will keep you on the line. Either way, not a tool I would be comfortable using nor a toy I would be interested in playing with.

How exactly did Grok go full ‘MechaHitler?’

I always wondered why all roofs aren’t hail proof solar. They last forever and pay for themselves, and then some. I guess Kia in Georgia lost thousands of new cars in a parking lot of their factory. A solar roof seems to be the solution.

Kia Lost Millions To Hail In 2023. Its New Protection System Is A Solar Plant

Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer? He may have a higher body count after this week. From The Guardian (UK).

Ted Cruz ensured Trump spending bill slashed weather forecasting funding

This is so cool. The solar panels themselves have gotten so cheap they can be used in ways that don’t care so much about efficiency (on walls, in Canada, different colors). From Interesting Engineering.

World’s largest 34,500 sqft solar mural turns building into giant power generator

Just wanted to point out that my post on the government, and in particular Texas Governor Greg Abbott, was trying to kill me was written on June 28 (The Government is Trying to Kill Me). This was almost a week before the deadly and devastating floods in Central Texas.

At least 120 dead, 173 missing in historic Texas flooding, as search continues

A good read on the latest US tariff status from the BBC. No peace in Gaza or Ukraine. No tariff deals. But the Billionaires got their big tax cut.

Trump delays tariffs as the rest of the world plays hardball

We live in Placitas, NM with a nice view of the 10,000 foot Sandia Mountains. There is a cable car / tramway that will take you to the top and to a restaurant and a ski area. You can also go around the back side and take a (paved) road to the top, mostly to access trails. There is also a shorter way directly from Placitas but it is an unpaved road and we decide that would not be a good idea in the Tesla.

it was about an hour drive to the top, starting at about 5000 feet rising to 10,000. I had never tested the Tesla in this sort of environment so I kept an eye on the range, just to make sure we had enough juice to get home. We started with a full charge at 258 miles. When we got to the top it was about 170, or about 90 miles of range for a 51 mile trip. So the altitude cost about 40 miles of range. Ok.

On the way home things got interesting. Going down the steep part of the hill we added range, maybe 15 miles total. But I’m not sure the battery was ready to take on this charge (there was some green light that kept going on and off on the console). The rest of the ride was still downhill but less so. It took a while for the range to go down at all an eventually it got back to 170, where we were at the peak, but by the we were almost home.

I didn’t really keep close track of the numbers but it was roughly a 100 mile round trip, and total range was maybe 110.  Not much of a penalty for a 5000 foot climb.

List of all full EVs and their efficiency. Did not realize there were so many EVs.

Energy consumption of full electric vehicles