Elon Musk, Electricity, And Road To California -- October 17, 2021

Elon Musk: I guess because this story posted over the weekend a lot of folks will miss it. It will be interesting if this is covered on CNBC Monday? The Daily Star is reporting that Elon Musk's wealth swelled to an astonishing $230 billion, following a share sale at SpaceX, making Musk richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined. From the linked article:

Musk’s obscene personal fortune increased following a share sale at SpaceX as well the strong performance of Tesla stock.

Bezos had previously held the title as the world's richest person, with a boom at Amazon over the coronavirus pandemic seeing his net worth climb to $191 billion (£139 billion).

Musk is now richer than Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined, both of whom have previously held the title as the world's richest person.

Comment: so what's so "obscene" about that?

Road to California: link to The WSJ. This is another must-read story. California scrambles to find electricity to offset plant closures. State to struggle with coming loss of gas-fired power plants and its last remaining nuclear facility to transition to renewable energy.

• the nuclear plant provides nearly 10 percent of all electricity generated in the state
• the California Public Utilities Commission has ordered utilities to buy an unprecedented amount of renewable energy and battery storage as the state phases out four natural-gas-fired power plants and retires Diablo Canyon, the state’s last nuclear plant, starting in 2024;
• from where does one think those batteries will be coming? See previous note: Elon Musk is now the richest man in the world, surpassing Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined.
• it should be noted there is minimal EV penetration in California;

Not so fast: this story was published three days ago, so it's very current. It appears that ... well, I don't have time for this. If interested, go to the link. This is all I need to know:

It's the latest setback for the project, originally expected to cost $33 billion and be completed last year. Today the vision of shuttling passengers between Los Angeles and San Francisco in less than three hours is a distant dream. The first leg of rideable track, connecting two cities in the Central Valley, won't start until at least 2029, and the project's costs have ballooned to $98 billion.

Little political will seems to exist to either kill the project outright or to give it more resources, leaving construction to continue without a long-term plan.

At the center of the latest dispute is how soon to electrify the line, which rail officials say is a necessity to make the train high speed — the whole idea of the project that voters were sold on. They want to enter into a contract next year for a firm to design and construct an electrified track and system and to maintain it for 30 years, effectively locking in the state for the long haul.

Takeaway: Merced, CA, at center of boondoggle. Might be interesting to track politics in this district.

Bullet train is tracked here.

The original road to California: Route 66, New Mexico.This is a great link sent to me by a reader. One could spend all night on this one. And I did. LOL.