Inconvenient Facts About Electric Cars
John Stossel / November 02, 2022
Electric cars sales are up 66% this year.
President Joe Biden promotes them, saying things like, “The
great American road trip is going to be fully electrified,” and,
"There's no turning back.”
To make sure we have no choice in the matter, some left leaning
states have moved to ban gas-powered cars altogether.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning
them by 2035. Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York copied California.
Washington state’s politicians said they’d make it happen even
faster, by 2030.
Thirty countries also say they’ll phase out gas-powered cars.
But this is just dumb. It won't happen. It’s magical thinking.
In my new video, I point out some “inconvenient” facts about
electric cars, simple truths that politicians and green activists
just don’t seem to understand.
“Electric cars are amazing,” says physicist Mark Mills of the
Manhattan Institute. “But they won’t change the future in any signi-
ficant way (as far as) oil use or carbon dioxide emissions.”
Inconvenient fact 1: Selling more electric cars won’t reduce oil
use very much.
“The world has 15, 18 million electric vehicles now,” says Mills.
“If we [somehow] get to 500 million, that would reduce world oil
consumption by about 10%. That’s not nothing, but it doesn’t end the
use of oil.”
Most of the world’s oil is used by things like “airplanes,
buses, big trucks, and the mining equipment that gets the copper to
build the electric cars.”
Even if all vehicles somehow did switch to electricity, there’s
another problem: Electricity isn’t very green.
I laugh talking to friends who are all excited about their elec-
tric car, assuming it doesn’t pollute. They go silent when I ask,
“Where does your car’s electricity come from?”
They don’t know. They haven’t even thought about it.
Inconvenient fact 2: Although driving an electric car puts lit-
tle additional carbon into the air, producing the electricity to
charge its battery adds plenty. Most of America’s electricity is
produced by burning natural gas and coal. Just 12% comes from wind
or solar power.
Auto companies don’t advertise that. “Electric vehicles in gen-
eral are better and more sustainable for the environment,” says
Ford’s Linda Zhang in a BBC interview.
“She’s a Ford engineer,” I say to Mills. “She’s not ignorant.”
“She’s not stupid,” he replies. “But ignorance speaks to what
you know. You have to mine, somewhere on Earth, 500,000 pounds of
minerals and rock to make one battery.”
American regulations make mining difficult, so most of it is
done elsewhere, polluting those countries. Some mining is done by
children. Some is done in places that use slave labor.
Even if those horrors didn’t exist, mining itself adds lots of
carbon to the air.
“If you’re worried about carbon dioxide,” says Mills, “the elec-
tric vehicle has emitted 10 to 20 tons of carbon dioxide (from the
mining, manufacturing, and shipping) before it even gets to your
driveway.”
“Volkswagen published an honest study [in which they] point out
that the first 60,000 miles or so you’re driving an electric
vehicle, that electric vehicle will have emitted more carbon
dioxide than if you just drove a conventional vehicle.”
You would have to drive an electric car “100,000 miles” to re-
duce emissions by just “20 or 30%, which is not nothing, but it’s
not zero.”
No, it’s not.
If you live in New Zealand, where there’s lots of hydro and
geothermal power, electric cars pollute less. But in America, your
“zero-emission vehicle” adds lots of greenhouse gasses to the
atmosphere.
Politicians and electric car sellers don’t mention that. Most
probably don’t even know.
*John Stossel*
Now for my two cents worth.
It basically impossible for a country that gets 88% of its
energy from gas and oil, to reduce the carbon dioxide to even a
noticeable level.
Like the article says, to make one battery, it will take a half
million pounds of minerals and rock. To make that one battery, 10
to 20 tons of carbon dioxide will be emitted.
Imagine this scenario. A hurricane or severe storm with feet
of rain would require people to evacuate. When to lead vehicle's
batteries die, what will the thousands of other do? Nowhere to get
a charge, no time to wait, and no way for an electric tow truck to
get to you and the thousands of others.
The making of a catastrophic disaster never seen before.
People on a fixed income can't afford to even buy the car.
This could be the dumbest plan ever fabricated and the least
affordable for the country as well as the people.
The climate and green people border on suicidal.
Take a minute and pray that this foolishness stop and ask God
intervene.
Conservatively,
John
Conservativelyjohn.com 