[shuckles]

So your theory is that China is investing unprecedented amounts into EV production to improve air quality in coastal California thereby propping up land values? Wouldn't it be cheaper to pass permit reform so that LA and SF metro areas could just build mass transit?

[readyman]

>So your theory is that China is investing unprecedented amounts into EV production to improve air quality in coastal California thereby propping up land values?

China has the necessary political organization and willpower to meaningfully invest in nuclear energy, making EVs an environmental benefit. That does not apply to the US.

>Wouldn't it be cheaper to pass permit reform so that LA and SF metro areas could just build mass transit?

No. Better public transit could work in SF but SF isn't the problem. LA is the problem because it's surrounded by mountains on most sides that trap the pollution, and LA city planning makes public transit a nightmare no matter how you build it. You can't plan a city around interstates then bolt on public transit later.

[smcin]

> You can't plan a city [LA] around interstates then bolt on public transit later.

LA used to have a perfectly functioning public transport network, then in the 1900s-1950s it was systematically dismantled by holding companies fronting for car companies buying up rights-of-way and depots.

> China has the necessary political organization and willpower to meaningfully invest in nuclear energy, making EVs an environmental benefit. That does not apply to the US.

Better to restate your criticism of EVs not being environmental as "[claim:] EVs are only a net plus for the environment if they don't just relocate poullution to electricity generating plants, but use lower-carbon-emission generation like nuclear". There are still environmental benefits to moving smog out of/downwind of Los Angeles County (pop 9.7m) to its neighbors [0].

Building new nuclear plants (or even extending the life of the last existing one) in California is for decades already a political hot potato, it will only get approval when the grid is repeatedly straining at its limits in peak summer or winter. So that's a political question, not an engineering one.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_Cali...