| ▲ | codedokode 3 hours ago |
| What's good in electric cars? If a large power plant is destroyed how are you going to charge your electric car to escape? |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| There is no need of large powerplants. Thats the legacy grid, only to make Warren Buffet rich. New grid (that needs to be built) will have solar panels, BESS + EVs for storage, either off-grid or a small community grid. The new grid is distributed and indestructible. |
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| ▲ | jmuguy 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I hope its strictly an American fantasy to think you're driving out of anywhere when something like that happens. Buy a bicycle. |
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| ▲ | skinfaxi 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Following Hurricane Sandy, many were left without power and ultimately even gas was strictly rationed. So it's not out of the ordinary to imagine an event like that happening. https://www.nj.com/news/2012/11/sandy_gas_ration_12_counties... | |
| ▲ | ButlerianJihad 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | In Phoenix we all live in the shadow of the Palo Verde nuclear generation plant. And once on the radio I heard some pundits discussing contingencies if PV should glitch out and have a life-threatening disaster. And they matter-of-factly said, "you're gonna be walking." And that would be the truth; in a full-scale evacuation of a city like Phoenix, the freeways are not built to accommodate traffic like that, and yours truly has no car anyway, so I would be packing light and walking in the opposite direction, and/or ignoring the orders, to meet whatever fate awaits. But I bet there would be a lot of bicycle and vehicle theft going on, in such an event. | |
| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | I know I have a problem with "suspension of disbelief" but I find it always weird in those dystopian movies where they all drive monster trucks on an apparently endless supply of scavenged fuel and spare parts. But I'm positive exactly this Hollywood spirit is what fuels (pun intended) most of those hyper-optimistic answers. | | |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| And your gasoline pump works perfectly fine without power? Or the refineries? |
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| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Gasoline is much easier to store (you can keep a reserve in your cellar) and much easier to carry and trade than electricity. | | |
| ▲ | nemomarx 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Do you keep gasoline in your cellar? my understanding is that it goes bad relatively fast, so be careful to keep cycling it yearly at least. | |
| ▲ | oytis 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | African continent is probably the last place in the world where this is relevant, and they are on track to fix it. |
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| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | > And your gasoline pump works perfectly fine without power? Most decent emergency / contingency plans will have the fire department, police or whatever local group show up at one or two designated gas stations to provide power, or require these stations to have on-site emergency power. | | |
| ▲ | mirmor23 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | > Most decent emergency / contingency plans will have the fire department, police or whatever local group show up at one or two designated gas stations to provide power, or require these stations to have on-site emergency power. this is just nonsense. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Iberian_Peninsula_blackou... while traveling i got caught up in this. no restaurants, no credit cards working, no grocery stores, no cell connection, no navigation with phone, no gas station. the goddam list goes on. fortunately this was less than 16 hours. | | |
| ▲ | Al-Khwarizmi an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | As a local, it was actually rather fun. And my kid was amazed. For a traveler it must have sucked, though (and also for some people with special needs, and in places where it's actually common, etc.). | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you used cash as a reasonable person you would not even notice that cards aren't working. | | |
| ▲ | hombre_fatal 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The only place I've been where that might happen is rural mountainous Mexico where the "gas station" is a huachicolero funneling fuel into your car from a plastic water bottle next to a construction paper sign with "GAS" scribbled on it. Everywhere else, gas stations aren't open if there's no power because nothing works, not even the cash register. But I'm starting to see the uni freshman libertarian vibes here having been there once myself. | |
| ▲ | mirmor23 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > If you used cash as a reasonable person you would not even notice that cards aren't working. lol. i see. gas stations were closed since pumps were out. similar story with other facilities. luckily, gas station snack shops accepted cash, so buying some water/snacks was possible. cash is of no use if facilities are not open. now that everything has been spelled out, i'm sure you are able to comprehend ;) | |
| ▲ | soco 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | How many shops will be open without power? No till, no light, no refrigerator... not sure how much will help you having cash, beyond a couple of very basic needs - I can't even tell which, nor can you, it's gonna be an adventure either way. | | |
| ▲ | codedokode an hour ago | parent [-] | | Bread doesn't need a refrigerator and you can sell it directly from a truck. |
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| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If your refinery is taken out, it might take years to rebuild it. | | |
| ▲ | ben_w 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | If it was that easy, Ukraine would have already brought Russia to its knees. Because the Russian government is still telling themselves they can win and don't even bother trying to negotiate with Ukraine but instead the USA, this must not be the case. | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Not years. |
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| ▲ | vel0city 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | As someone who has actually lived through multiple major catastrophes where fuel couldn't get delivered for days and electricity was out for days, when the pumps stop working there is no gas. Don't assume the gasoline the police and fire department have will be there for you. It's there for the first responders. They don't have infinite supply. Their supply is extra expensive to handle compared to when things were working. You've now got many thousands of families all trying to get to the two or three operating fuel stations...trust me they're not open to the public! When you're out of gas, you're out of gas. Meanwhile, those with solar panels not reliant on grid-tie, they can continue to charge their vehicles. |
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| ▲ | 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| [deleted] |
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| ▲ | vrganj 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| You can have solar panels and batteries right at home. You can't have an oil rig at home. |
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| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > If a large power plant is destroyed how are you going to charge your electric car to escape? Solar panels and home battery storage. This is also going to seriously screw over electrical grid and especially powerplant operators... residential will, at least in suburban and rural areas, not need a grid any more except during prolonged phases of low solar yield. |
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| ▲ | wyre 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| What are you afraid of happening? This is such a perverse and anxious fear imo |
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| ▲ | mschuster91 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | A reasonable scenario might be a cyberattack taking down large portions of the grid for a prolonged time. It's not impossible to achieve something like that, Stuxnet proved the concept of corrupting PLCs driving powerplants ages ago. Alternatively, even outside a cyberwar scenario, bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks. | | |
| ▲ | jameshart 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Meanwhile the oil supply system is immune to outside threats https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonial_Pipeline_ransomware_a... https://shippingtelegraph.com/shipping-news/adnoc-reports-15... https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/08/1168121 | |
| ▲ | kalleboo 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks Where I live, we have typhoons which depending on the direction they arrive in can result in all the gas stations being out of gas for 2+ days. Meanwhile the grid keeps on ticking. | |
| ▲ | vel0city 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If they've taken down large portions of the grid for a prolonged period of time you're also not going to have much gasoline left. > bad weather has been shown to take down power grids for entire regions for days, sometimes weeks Once again, as someone who actually lived through those scenarios multiple times, when the gas pumps go down you're usually shit outta luck on getting gas. When the grid goes down for days, the gas you have in your gas car + any random fuel tanks you have in your garage is what you have. Don't expect anything else unless you plan to take it at gunpoint. |
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| ▲ | cevn 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Are u serious? If ur oil refinery is destroyed how are you going to pump oil to your house? |
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| ▲ | codedokode 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | You can buy it on a black market unlike electricity. | | |
| ▲ | thelastgallon 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Yes, buy crude on the black market and build your own refinery. Or you can run your own DIY fracking rig in your backyard. There must be some yt videos. | |
| ▲ | gspr 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Are you suggesting we plan our global energy infrastructure based on attributes like "how well it fares in a post-apocalyptic barter economy"? | | |
| ▲ | codedokode 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Are you thinking that there are no wars and power plants do not get destroyed? If you live in a non-nuclear country the chances are non-zero and it is not smart to depend on large, centralized, easy to destroy power plants. It actually dumb to build those large plants instead of decentralized smaller plants. For example, a president of a certain country threatened to make a "power plant day" in another certain country. |
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