Nobody needs to do that. That’s an invented, unnecessary and basically meaningless scenario.
I’ll guesstimate it should take about two years to convert all the diesels to 100% renewable agriculturally derived fuels. Since that’s what Dr. Diesel intended them to run on… and people have been doing the reconversion on shoestring budgets for decades. It’s pretty close to an afternoon project.
Biologically derived gasoline is also possible, but gas cars and equipment are already phasing out. I have an electric tractor, an electric car, a hybrid car, and a gasoline fueled van. The oldest is the electric tractor, but second eldest is the gas van. Well maintained electric vehicles fundamentally pay for themselves in fuel savings, so it’s strictly front-loaded cost that is the barrier to adoption.
Well, everybody always says whatever they don’t want to do will wreck the economy. In this case, it’s kind of the opposite of the truth; as you pointed out yourself, maintaining the non-renewable energy power structure is exactly what’s killing our economy.
There’s no need to analyze the failings of a straw man. The scenario you envision - overnight conversion of heavy equipment and transportation to electric propulsion - is a movie plot, not a valid strategy. We don’t need to do it.
I’m speaking from considerable experience. The number of people who told me I was wrong and crazy for buying into hybrids and EVs was easily ten times the number of those who were supportive. But economically, I’ve been laughing my way to the bank!
I drive my plug-in hybrid over 25 miles a day, and I fill the tank once a month, whether it needs it or not. My electric tractor snowplows the street for 50¢ of electricity. It turns out that economics favors sustainability in the Real World™ - people will buy non-polluting technologies, and use them, if they are not prevented from so doing. Which is why the Wyoming bill that initiated this thread exists - environmentally, people pretty much have to be forced to do the wrong thing, either by coercive law, divisive propaganda, or massive market manipulation.
