Everything posted by XCR1250
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'Don't tell them I didn't have it on': Biden flaunts not wearing mask after COVID exposure
'Don't tell them I didn't have it on': Biden flaunts not wearing mask after COVID exposure Joey Garrison USA TODAY WASHINGTON − President Joe Biden joked about not wearing a mask Wednesday following this week's positive COVID-19 test of his wife, first lady Jill Biden, sending mixed signals as White House officials insist the president is following CDC guidelines. Biden walked into the White House State Dining Room holding − not wearing − a face mask before delivering remarks to a room of reporters, White House aides and stakeholders on a new contract between unions and shipping companies in West Coast ports. "Let me explain to the press: I've been tested again today. I'm clear across the board," Biden said as he got underway, holding up a black face mask. "But they keep telling me, because this has to be 10 days or something, I've got to keep wearing it. But don't tell them I didn't have it on when I walked in." After Biden spoke for about 10 minutes, the president left the room with his mask still in his hand, not over his face. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises individuals who were in close contact with someone infected with COVID wear a high-quality mask when indoors and around others for 10 days, in addition to regular testing and monitoring for symptoms. For the second straight day, President Biden tested negative Wednesday for COVID-19 following his wife's positive case and is experiencing no symptoms, the White House said. But his public appearance without a mask contradicted White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who minutes earlier said Biden "is going to be masking in this 10-day period" in accordance with CDC recommendations. Biden remains scheduled to travel to India on Thursday for a summit of Group of 20 nations before heading to Vietnam and Alaska this weekend. Jill Biden is recovering from COVID at the first family's vacation home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. "The president's going to continue to following CDC guidance," Jean-Pierre said of his interactions with world leaders at the summit. "That includes masking. That includes testing." Biden's nonchalant attitude on masks Wednesday seemed a far cry from his COVID approach during the first two years in the White House, when he strictly followed CDC advice on masks. Much has changed, however, since the lockdowns that dominated the beginning of the pandemic, and much of the country retired their masks long ago. Still, COVID-19 cases are on the rise again, with weekly U.S. hospitalizations from the virus up 15.7%, according to the CDC. On Tuesday, Biden wore a face mask as he arrived at a White House Medal of Honor ceremony for Vietnam War veteran Capt. Larry Taylor. The president took it off as he gave remarks about Taylor's service and kept it off as he placed the medal around Taylor's neck. Biden then left the White House East Room, where the ceremony was held, during a final prayer before the ceremony concluded. Jean-Pierre said Biden's early exit was to minimize contact with the hundreds of attendees in the room. Prior to the ceremony, Biden wore a mask as he personally thanked Taylor for his service and heroism, Jean-Pierre added. "We are in a different phase, as we have said many times, with COVID," Jean-Pierre said at a White House press briefing. "This is kind of going on the third year of coming out of this pandemic. We believe we're in a very strong position to continue to fight COVID. And this is not new. People know what it's like to have COVID, know what it's like during this time."
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Social security at 62?
Both myself and wife took SS at 62.
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Trump vows to end ‘madness’ of EV push
Like your DUH underground lies. I don't post any chain mails all post are from online sites I visit.
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Trump vows to end ‘madness’ of EV push
OOPS!
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Trump vows to end ‘madness’ of EV push
Trump vows to end ‘madness’ of EV push BY LAUREN SFORZA - 09/05/23 10:04 AM ET SHARETWEET Former President Trump is vowing to end the “madness” of the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles — a likely appeal to voters in the swing state of Michigan. In a pair of Truth Social posts Monday evening, Trump took aim at the electric vehicle industry and President Biden’s push for more electric vehicles. With this opposition to electric vehicles, Trump is likely trying to persuade Michigan voters to support him over Biden, who carried the swing state in 2020. “The Great State of Michigan will not have an auto industry anymore if Crooked Joe Biden’s crazed concept of ‘all Electric Cars’ goes into effect,” he wrote in the Truth Social post. “CHINA WILL TAKE IT ALL, 100%. United Auto Workers, VOTE FOR TRUMP. Get your leaders to ENDORSE ME, I WILL KEEP ALL OF THESE GREAT JOBS, AND BRING IN MANY MORE. CHOICE IN SCHOOLS, AND CHOICE IN CARS!!!” In 2021, Michigan was home to more than 175,000 auto manufacturing jobs, according to a report from nonprofit research center Mackinac Center for Public Policy. While that number is still higher than any other state, the report noted it’s also only 37 percent of the jobs Michigan had at its peak. The Biden administration has pushed to boost electric car sales, with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicting that two-thirds of new car sales could be electric by 2032 under a new proposal released by the administration earlier this year. Last week, the Energy Department announced plans to invest $12 billion into converting auto manufacturing facilities into plants for hybrid and electric vehicles. Trump also took aim at Shawn Fain, the president of the United Auto Workers, for supporting the Biden administration’s latest investment into electric vehicles. “Shawn Fain, the respected President of the United Auto Workers, cannot even think about allowing ALL ELECTRIC CARS — THEY WILL ALL BE MADE IN CHINA, and the Auto Industry in America will cease to exist!” Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post. “Vote for TRUMP, and I will stop this Madness, IMMEDIATELY!” he said. “Mexico & Canada LOVE Biden’s idiotic policy. SAVE MICHIGAN and the other Auto States. SAVE THE AMERICAN CONSUMER!!!” The call-outs come as about 146,000 UAW members near a strike deadline when their contract ends Sept. 14 with three large U.S. automakers — General Motors, Stellantis and Ford. Meanwhile, Fain calls their demands for a 46 percent pay raise, a 32-hour work week with 40 hours of pay and restoration of traditional pensions “audacious.” It is not the first time Trump has taken aim at the Biden administration’s push for electric vehicles to win over voters in Michigan. He has also touted the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) he made in 2020, saying the deal created “tough new requirements to ensure more cars are made in American factories by American workers.” “Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker, and you’re starting to see it,” Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan in June. TAGS 2024 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION DONALD TRUMP ELECTRIC VEHICLES JOE BIDEN MICHIGAN UNITED AUTO WORKERS
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Getting robbed....don't call 911.
I don't know how to, never used one.
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Jill got the Vid
You really should get some schooling cause your IQ is the lowest ever seen on this site.
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Jill got the Vid
You being at the top of the list.
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Jill got the Vid
First lady Jill Biden tests positive for COVID-19 BY S. DEV UPDATED ON: SEPTEMBER 4, 2023 / 10:11 PM / CBS NEWS First lady Dr. Jill Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday evening, the White House said. Biden, 72, was experiencing mild symptoms at the time of the positive test, the first lady's communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement. She plans to remain at her home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. President Biden was administered a COVID-19 test after the first lady's positive result — he tested negative, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. "The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms," Jean-Pierre said. Biden, a professor at Northern Virginia Community College, last week told middle schoolers in Washington, D.C., that she was set to begin teaching courses again this week. Given her COVID-19 diagnosis, Biden is "working with NOVA to ensure her classes are covered by a substitute," Alexander told CBS News. Biden is the first presidential spouse to hold a full-time job while living in the White House. First Lady Jill Biden meets with residents of Live Oak, Florida, that were affected by Hurricane Idalia on September 2, 2023.STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Mr. Biden is scheduled to travel to India on Sept. 7 for the Group of 20 leaders' summit, followed by a one-day visit to Hanoi, Vietnam. The first lady's positive test result came two days after she and Mr. Biden traveled to Delaware from Florida, where they had been visiting communities ravaged by Hurricane Idalia. The first lady previously tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 16, 2022, a few weeks after Mr. Biden experienced his own bout with COVID. After being treated with Paxlovid, she experienced a "rebound" case a week later and returned to isolation. —Ed O'Keefe contributed reporting.
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Darn Gas guzzlers causing climate changes
They're not my articles.
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Darn Gas guzzlers causing climate changes
Have some small panels for keeping my vehicles batteries charged.
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Music
- "settled science"
Science is NEVER settled.- Darn Gas guzzlers causing climate changes
Ask the professional experts, better yet call them to ask.- Friend of mine had to pay for 3 kids till age 18 after he killed their dad with his snowmobile..many years ago in Rhinelander, Wi.
In Wisconsin you can be considered Impaired even if you've only drank 1 or 2 Beers and passed a sobriety test.- Darn Gas guzzlers causing climate changes
You need to read more: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2021/02/25/carbon-dioxide-cause-global-warming/- "Replacing existing internal combustion cars and trucks will be impossible"
SEPTEMBER 3, 2023 Why wind and solar power are running out of juice By Jonathan Lesser September 2, 2023 12:00pm Updated Green energy and the push to electrify everything have been in the news recently but for all the wrong reasons. Instead of the green energy nirvana politicians and green energy advocates have promised, economic and physical reality has begun to set in. Start with the economic realities. Wind turbine manufacturers like Siemens and General Electric have reported huge losses for the first half of this year, almost $5 billion for the former and $1 billion for the latter. Among other problems, turbine quality control has suffered, forcing manufacturers such as Siemens and Vestas to incur costly warranty repairs. In Europe, offshore wind output has been less than promised, while operating costs have been much higher than advertised. Offshore wind developers in Europe and the US are canceling projects because of higher materials and construction costs. In Massachusetts, Avangrid, the developer of the 1,200 MW Commonwealth Wind project paid $48 million to get out of its existing contract to sell power to ratepayers. That way, the company can rebid the project next year at an even higher price. Close by, the developers of the 1,200 MW SouthCoast Wind Project off Martha’s Vineyard will pay about $60 million to exit their existing contract. Rhode Island Energy, the state’s main electric utility, recently rejected the second Revolution Wind Project because the contract price was too high. Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee promised that his state’s new “cap-and-invest” program would have little impact on residents’ pocketbooks. Ron Sachs – CNP And Ørsted, the Danish government-owned company that is developing the Southfork Wind and Sunrise Wind projects off Long Island — as well as the Ocean Wind project off the New Jersey coast — last week announced that, without additional subsidies and higher contract prices, it will have to write-off billions of dollars in potential losses. The result: Even though Siemens Energy CEO Christian Bruch insists that “energy transition without wind energy does not work,” 2022 saw 16% less new wind-power capacity than in 2021, according to the American Clean Power Association. In New Jersey, the legislature passed a law in July, which is likely unconstitutional, to bail out Ørsted. The legislation will award the company with several billion dollars of investment tax credits that were supposed to go to consumers. Back on dry land, opposition to siting land-gobbling wind and solar projects continues to grow. Local governments in Iowa, Illinois, and Ohio have all rejected or restricted projects. Rural communities, it seems, do not want to host massive turbine farms — nor the high-voltage transmission lines needed to deliver electricity to power-hungry cities. Then there are electric vehicles. German manufacturer Siemens’s wind turbine business Siemens Gamesa has lost almost $5 billion over the past year. AFP via Getty Images Ford, which has bet heavily on its electric Lightning pickup and Mustang and received a $9.2 billion government-subsidized loan in January, revealed that it has lost $60,000 for every EV it sold in the first half of this year. Rivian, another EV company, managed to reduce its losses per EV to around $33,000, a big improvement over the $67,000 loss per EV in the first quarter of the year. Proterra, a Bay Area-based manufacturer of electric buses and batteries that had a $10 million loan forgiven by the Biden Administration, just filed for bankruptcy. Like the wizard in The Wizard of Oz, alternative energy proponents claim these are just temporary little potholes on the road to economic and climate nirvana — all of which can be filled with more money through renegotiated power purchase contracts and more zero-emissions mandates. An employee working on the factory floor at Rivian, the e-car start-up. REUTERS Alternative energy madness – and that’s what it is – has had its biggest impact in California. But New York and New Jersey have adopted most of that state’s mandates. Sales of new internal combustion vehicles will be banned beginning in 2035 in the states. All of the electricity sold to retail consumers will have to be “zero-emissions.” Biden-backed electric vehicle company files for bankruptcy Homeowners and building owners will be forced to replace gas- and oil-burning space and water heaters with electric heat pumps. And, gas stoves will be regulated out of existence. New York also will soon implement another California import: a carbon “cap-and-invest” program, which will impose a tax on fossil fuels sold by wholesalers and utilities. The billions of dollars collected each year will provide a green slush fund, allowing the governor and legislators to hand out money to their politically favored cronies, as has so often been the case in the past. Washington State began its “cap-and-invest” program in January of this year. Modeled after California’s, Governor Jay Inslee promised the program would have “minimal impact, if any. We are talking about pennies.” Instead, the program has raised gasoline prices – almost 50 cents per gallon so far this year. Washington State now claims the honor of having the highest gasoline prices in the nation: In Seattle, for example, the average price of regular gasoline is over $5 per gallon. Electric vehicle maker Rivian has halved its per-EV losses to around $33,000 each — less than half of what they were at the beginning of this year. Getty Images Of course, the entire point of the program was to raise gasoline and fossil fuel prices to encourage consumers to switch to electric vehicles, mass transit, electric heat pumps, and so forth. But politics being what it is, Governor Inslee, along with environmentalists and legislative proponents, now blames greedy oil companies for the price increases. ‘We won’t stand for’ corporate greed,” the Governor said at a July 20, 2023, press conference. Once New York’s cap-and-invest program starts, probably next year, you can expect a similar outcome: higher gasoline and diesel prices, higher prices for natural gas and fuel oil used to heat homes and apartment buildings, and endless political demagoguery denouncing it all. France has been able to wean itself away from fossil fuels by investing in nuclear power — which the nation has proven can be produced safely. ZUMAPRESS.com As the push toward electric-everything powered by green energy barrels along, proponents also refuse to confront basic physical realities. Electricity accounts for just one-sixth of all energy use. The rest is fossil fuels consumed for transportation, space and water heating, and manufacturing. Convert everything to electricity and electricity consumption will increase. A lot. According to the New York Climate Action Committee’s Final Scoping Plan, New York will meet that increased demand by building almost 15,000 MW of offshore wind, like the Southfork Wind and Sunrise Wind projects, and over 40,000 MW of solar panels. (By comparison, the emissions-free Indian Point Nuclear Plant, which former Governor Cuomo forced to close, had a capacity of just over 1,000 MW.) Siemens CEO Christian Bruch has doubled down on his insistence that wind power is a key to solving the global energy crisis. dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images Because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine, keeping the lights on will require far more backup resources. This “reserve margin” – basically, the amount of generating capacity available to step in and meet electric demand – will need to increase from the current 20% to over 100%. In other words, for every MW of generating capacity in 2040, there will have to be an equal amount or more in reserve. That’s like having to buy a second car and keep it idling all the time in case the first one won’t start. The Scoping Plan claims this will be accomplished by building over 20,000 MW of so-called “dispatchable emissions-free generating resources” (DEFRs) and installing over 12,000 MW of battery storage. Those claims are fantasy. Start with DEFRs, which are generators that burn pure hydrogen manufactured from surplus wind and solar power. They have yet to be invented (we repeat – they do not yet exist). Nor do any large-scale commercial plants to manufacture green hydrogen exist either. Hydrogen cannot be transported in existing natural gas pipelines. An entirely new infrastructure will need to be built. Assuming a new technology will be invented by whatever date politicians decree is foolish. That’s not how technology works. Danish power giant Orsted has invested heavily in the US market — and also lost heavily. The company faces billions in additional losses in the US if it does not receive future subsidies and cash. Doug Kuntz Just ask everyone working on commercial fusion power, which has been just 30 years off for the last 50 years. As for battery storage, 12,000 MW will provide at most 48,000 megawatt-hours of actual electricity. That may sound like a lot but based on the New York Independent System Operator’s (NYISO) most recent forecast, on a windless and cold winter evening in 2040, it would keep the lights on for only one hour. The materials requirements for batteries also are staggering, which is one reason why replacing existing internal combustion cars and trucks will be impossible. Children in the Democratic Republic of Congo mine copper and cobalt, rare and precious materials required for the manufacturing of electric batteries. Getty Images Batteries require large quantities of cobalt, much of which is now mined in the Congo using child and slave labor. They also require lots of graphite, most of which comes from China – the same with the rare minerals needed for wind turbines and solar panels. Ultimately, nothing New York does will have any measurable impact on world climate because the state’s carbon emissions are minuscule compared to the 35 billion metric tons of total global emissions. As long as China, which accounts for almost one-third of world energy-related carbon emissions, India, and other developing nations focus policies on economic growth, rather than cutting emissions, New York’s efforts will have no environmental value. Miners in China, where materials such as graphite are excavated and also used to build electric batteries. NurPhoto via Getty Images Nevertheless, if politicians and environmentalists were serious about zero-emissions goals, they would abandon the electrification mandates, and abandon reliance on wind, solar, battery storage, DEFRs, green hydrogen, and other unrealistic and unreliable energy sources. Instead, they would embrace the one existing technology that dare not speak its name: nuclear power. Unlike wind and solar, nuclear plants run all the time. New, small modular reactors will offer greater safety, lower costs, and easy scalability to meet increased electricity demand. Busses made by Proterra, a California-based electric vehicle company which recently announced it was going bankrupt. Getty Images Storing spent fuel is a political issue, not a technological one, for which the best solution is to recycle and reuse it, as France has done for the last half-century without incident. The country is also developing a permanent storage site for nuclear waste that can no longer be reprocessed. The economist Herb Stein once quipped that anything that cannot go on forever, won’t. That’s true of New York’s current alternative energy madness. It won’t save the world, but it will grind down the state’s economy and its residents until the folly is too great to ignore. Jonathan Lesser is the president of Continental Economics and an adjunct fellow with the Manhattan Institute.- Darn Gas guzzlers causing climate changes
Ancient Mud in Mississippi Reveals Dramatic Saga of Antarctic Ice NATURE03 September 2023 ByRUSSELL MCLENDON Visualization of Antarctica. (NASA/GSFC) Mud cores drilled in Mississippi hold long-hidden clues about the origins of gigantic Antarctic ice sheets around 34 million years ago, new research shows. Earth was in the midst of a major transition at the time, shifting from the balmy Eocene Epoch to the cooler Oligocene. The planet had no permanent ice during the Eocene, but by the early Oligocene, it already featured ice sheets 25 percent larger than those we know today. As those ice sheets grew during the Eocene-Oligocene transition, sea levels also fell by roughly 40 meters (131 feet), exposing swaths of previously submerged land in the wake of receding coastlines. That dramatic drop in sea levels unleashed a major carbon transfer from coastal sediments into the atmosphere, according to the research team's analysis of ancient mud from the same time period collected near Jackson, Mississippi. "We've unearthed information from the Mississippi mud to answer a key question about how Antarctic ice massively expanded to continental scale," says senior author Tom Dunkley Jones, a micropaleontologist and paleoceanographer at the University of Birmingham in the UK. These Antarctic ice sheets, the study's authors note, originally formed due to the long-term burial of carbon in sediments, sequestering it away from the atmosphere, where it famously has a heat-trapping effect. That drop in atmospheric carbon also enabled Earth's broader transition to the cooler modern climate of the past 34 million years, they add, creating chillier conditions that helped massive ice sheets form in Antarctica, which in turn led to the global decrease in sea levels. This all happened too quickly for many species to adapt, resulting in a widespread mass extinction as previous research has shown. This turbulent period is also known by the French nickname Grande Coupure, for "great cut." "The Eocene-Oligocene transition is probably the planet's biggest climate cooling event and has had a major impact on the Earth's history," Dunkley Jones says. Amid this overall cooling trend, however, falling sea levels caused by Antarctica's glaciation also led to another, opposing trend, Dunkley Jones and his colleagues report. The retreating ocean laid bare large regions of coastal sediments, leaving them vulnerable to extreme erosion. These soft, soggy sediments contained large volumes of plant matter and other organic debris, which were no longer protected by seawater. Falling sea levels more than 30 million years ago exposed coastal sediments similar to those in modern tropical mangrove swamps, researchers say. (Ozzy Delaney/Flickr/CC BY 2.0) As these mangrove-like habitats dried out, their legacy of organic material was exposed to oxygen and became a feast for microbes, which released its sequestered carbon into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide. This surge of CO2 was enough to cause a "transient negative feedback to climate cooling," the researchers write, briefly undercutting the planet's transition to an "icehouse" climate. "As sea levels fell over this transition, we can observe how a temporary brake on atmospheric cooling took place with the release of large amounts of carbon dioxide sequestered in coastal regions around the basin of the Mississippi River," Dunkley Jones says. The transfer of carbon from these coastal sediments may not have stopped the planet's progression into the cooler Oligocene climate, the team notes, but it does reveal an important detail about how this complex system works. "Our paper gives us a valuable new clue about how Earth's climate can undergo dramatic shifts and how this is often strongly linked to the biosphere and carbon cycle," says Kirsty Edgar, a micropaleontologist and paleoceanographer at the University of Birmingham. The study examined marine clays from about 137 meters deep, comparing data from them with clues about the Eocene-Oligocene transition from elsewhere, especially the Pacific Ocean. This revealed long-term changes in the accumulation of sediments, the researchers explain, clarifying the timing of sea-level declines that coincided with formation of the ice sheets. "Understanding these past events gives us a clearer picture of the beauty and complexity of the Earth's climate and ecology," says Edgar. The study was published in Nature Communications.- Scientific Study Claims Paper Straws Are Not Environmentally Friendly Or Safe For Human Health
Everywhere near here uses plastic straws.- Friend of mine had to pay for 3 kids till age 18 after he killed their dad with his snowmobile..many years ago in Rhinelander, Wi.
Texas drunk drivers will now have to pay child support if they kill a parent, guardian MICHELLE WATSON, CNN September 2, 2023 at 7:48 AM Brandon Bell/Getty Images A new law in Texas requires convicted drunk drivers to pay child support if they kill a child’s parent or guardian, according to House Bill 393. The law, which went into effect Friday, says those convicted of intoxication manslaughter must pay restitution. The offender will be expected to make those payments until the child is 18 or until the child graduates from high school, “whichever is later,” the legislation says. Intoxication manslaughter is defined by state law as a person operating “a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride; and is intoxicated and by reason of that intoxication causes the death of another by accident or mistake.” If someone is unable to pay the restitution because they’re incarcerated, they’re expected to make payments no “later than the first anniversary of the date,” of their release, the law says. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill in June, according to Texas’ bill tracking website. In July, Abbott said he was proud to back the legislation. “I was proud to sign HB 393 into law this year to require offenders to pay child support for the children of their victims.”- A World Running On Empty: The Decline Of Fossil Fuel Supply
Yup, 1973, many gas stations only allowed 10 gallons of gas.- A World Running On Empty: The Decline Of Fossil Fuel Supply
Wife's middle son live in Cali, they were told to cut back electric usage as they can't produce enough at this time.- any professional landscapers or arborists here?
Concrete- Boogy man
- More EV nightmares..water
Electric cars soaked by saltwater from hurricane go up in flames, Florida officials say Irene Wright 3 min read Palm Harbor Fire Rescue via Facebook Hurricane Idalia ripped through Florida’s Nature Coast, leaving a path of destruction behind. But, as the floodwaters recede, there is a new risk threatening owners of electric vehicles. Two Tesla cars, one in Palm Harbor and another in Pinellas Park, seemed to spontaneously combust after becoming flooded with saltwater during the hurricane, Florida officials said. On Aug. 30, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue responded to a Tesla on fire in Dunedin, according to the department’s Facebook post. The car had become flooded with saltwater during the storm surge following Hurricane Idalia. In Pinellas Park, on Aug. 31, a Tesla owner called a tow truck to move his flooded car, the Pinellas Park Police Department told WTSP. When the car was on the back of the truck, it suddenly burst into flames, leaving behind a charred frame when the fire was finally subdued, the outlet reported. “If you own a hybrid or electric vehicle that has come into contact with saltwater due to recent flooding within the last 24 hours, it is crucial to relocate the vehicle from your garage without delay,” Palm Harbor Fire Rescue said in the post. Firefighters said exposure from saltwater can trigger spontaneous combustion of lithium-ion batteries, used in electric cars, but also found in some golf carts and electric scooters. “Don’t drive these through water. PHFR crews have seen numerous residents out in carts and children on scooters riding through the water,” Palm Harbor Fire Rescue said. Reminders of Hurricane Ian In September 2022, Hurricane Ian brought massive flooding to Florida’s west coast. In the weeks following the saltwater surge, there were 12 reports of electric vehicle fires in Collier and Lee counties, according to the U.S. Fire Administration. One of those fires grew so severe it burned down two houses on Sanibel Island, the administration said. “According to the NHTSA, residual salt within the battery or battery components can form conductive ‘bridges’ that can lead to short circuit and self-heating of the battery, resulting in fires,” the USFA said. “The time frame in which a damaged battery can ignite has been observed to vary widely, from days to weeks.” Aware of the risks Tesla is aware of the potential fire risks following saltwater flooding in its vehicles and provides information about flooding on its website. “Tesla wants to ensure you have the information you need to should there be a risk of vehicle submersion or if your vehicle experiences submersion in water,” the company says. “If you notice fire, smoke, audible popping/hissing or heating coming from your vehicle, step away and immediately contact your local first responders.” Tesla also recommends moving any submerged car at least 50 feet away from all structures or combustible materials for fear a fire would spread. McClatchy News reached out to Tesla about the specific fires following Hurricane Idalia and did not receive an immediate response. Palm Harbor is about 25 miles northwest of Tampa. Pinellas Park is about 20 miles south of Palm Harbor. - "settled science"