Saturday, November 30, 2013

Email To Marin IJ Congressman and Assemblyman


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I wrote this email today to the editor of this email to editor of the Marin Independent Journal and to the staff of my congressman and assemblyman.  I let them have it.   Lynn Woolsey was my congresswoman till Jared Huffman took her seat.   Assemblyman Levine took over Huffman's seat in thet Assembly in Sacramento.   Here is the email.



In early 2010 I met with Lynn Woolsey and her staff to warn her of the waste OBama and Chu would bring upon us with their "green" junk policies that was just money for their friends.   Woolsey ignored me.   At the same time Mr. Huffman was busy giving away hundreds of millions to Bloom (Al Gore, John Doerr and Colin Powell) and AT&T in his quest for "green".  In February 2010 I wrote outside testimony to the US Senate on the matter of Lithium Ion Batteries and I quote



"Argonne National Labs published an exhaustive review of the materials and associated costs of lithium batteries back in May of 2000.http://www.transportation.anl.gov/pdfs/TA/149.pdf The total material cost for the cell was estimated at $1.28 and the total manufacturing cost of the cell including overhead and labor was estimated at $1.70. This Argonne report is perhaps the best report written on the economics associated with lithium battery fabrication. Actually had folks read this report back in 2000 they would have realized that the learning curve for lithium batteries would be painfully slow. Materials just make up far too much of a fraction of the battery cost and the quantity of materials is fixed by the chemistry. Therefore economies of scale could not drive a Moore’s Law type rate of learning and a very fractional Moore’s Law resulted. In the early years of lithium cell development from approximately 1990 to 2000, the improvements in chemistry and in economies of scale did allow the technology to enjoy a Moore’s Law type learning rate and it has been reported that costs of an 18650 cell reduced from $18 to $2 per cell in that decade. Unfortunately the technology has now hit an asymptote in their cost reduction curve"


John Petersen wrote in November 2103 on the matter of lithium ion batteries.

"Journal of Power Sources 231 (2013) (pp. 293-300) recently published an article that drills down into the costs of building a new factory for 18650 cells. The quick overview is that the capital costs are about $4 per unit of annual production capacity, materials costs run about $1.30 per cell, and materials costs typically represent 78% to 80% of direct manufacturing costs."


Total material costs are essentially identical in February 2010 and November 2013 and direct manufacturing costs are again essentially identical almost 4 years later.   The learning rate for battery manufacture has simply offset the rate of inflation.   Lindsay Leveen The Green Machine was right!

Mr. Huffman is a continuing disgrace.  Lynn Woolsey was a disgrace.  Mr. Levine is an absent assemblyman.  The Marin IJ is just a mouthpiece for junk that Mr. Huffman espouses such as his OP Ed on the late great President Kennedy.   You all should hang your heads in shame.  You all let the crimes against the people and nature happen.

Happy Holidays.

Lindsay Leveen
The Green Machine

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