Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumDreamliner Problems? Obama's Fault, Because Commie Green Energy!!!!
Critics of green energy are taking glee in the battery woes of Boeings 787 Dreamliner. Some have even tried to tie the Dreamliners problems to President Barack Obamas clean-tech initiatives, although those programs had nothing to do with Boeings decision to go with the flagship jets novel, fuel-saving design.
The grounding of the entire fleet of Dreamliners earlier this month was another black eye to Obamas energy programs, Richard Pollock, a reporter for the Washington Examiners Watchdog Team, wrote in an article last week.
Paul Chesser, an associate fellow at the conservative National Legal and Policy Center, also blamed the incidents on the federal government for encouraging lithium-ion batteries as a way to increase energy efficiency.
The green Dreamliner was supposed to be about big savings via fuel efficiency, new technologies and construction materials, all which were supposed to be made to magically appear, thanks to billions of dollars in government incentives, primarily to fight the cause of global warming, he wrote earlier this week. Chesser, Pollock and others were also quick to connect Boeings problems with the future of electric cars. Electric-car advocates are trying to stay out of the fray.
EDIT
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/dreamliners-woes-hearten-green-energys-foes-87026.html
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom
wtmusic
(39,166 posts)gtar100
(4,192 posts)For some, every issue is about political power. Just goes to show how narrow minded these conservatives really are.
you have to be totally hopeless to not want to change from fossil fuels.
unhappycamper
(60,364 posts)AFAIK, this is the first time the US has given wing technology to a foreign nation. (Boeing tried the Airbus approach to building a complicated machine.)
hatrack
(59,587 posts)The trailing edge, wing and forward fuselage fabrication and assembly were all in Nagoya.
Problem is, the CNC machines that actually do the fabrication have to be reset and recalibrated any time there's an earthquake of (IIRC) 5.0 or higher. It takes about 24-36 hours to run an emergency shutdown, recalibrate and prepare the systems to start work again.
Now, if you take a look at the YouTube video I've attached here, you'll see why submitting your production plans to the geological whim of life in a very different country might not always be a good idea:
It's more effective with the sound turned up, FYI. It's not just the string-of-firecrackers effect you'll see from 3/11 on, it's the fact that the quakes seem to increase in frequency hundreds of kilometers from the Pacific Plate subduction zone - even in areas like Nagoya.