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Inconvenient Facts (About Electric Vehicles)
Townhall ^ | 11/02/2022 | John Stossel

Posted on 11/02/2022 7:58:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

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 will not 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 significant 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 electric 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 little 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 general 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 electric 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 reduce 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.

In a future column, three more inconvenient facts about electric cars.



TOPICS: Science; Society
KEYWORDS: automotive; electric; ev
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1 posted on 11/02/2022 7:58:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Switch to Nuclear for electricity and both inconvenient facts go away.


2 posted on 11/02/2022 8:00:10 AM PDT by DannyTN
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To: SeekAndFind

Never go full retard.


3 posted on 11/02/2022 8:01:19 AM PDT by Tommy Revolts
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To: DannyTN

Inconvenient fact 3: the environmentalists wanting EVs will fight tooth and nail to prevent expanding the grid to handle the load, including nuclear.


4 posted on 11/02/2022 8:05:32 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: SeekAndFind

...not to mention the inevitable planned obsolescence of the battery, itself.


5 posted on 11/02/2022 8:07:52 AM PDT by LittleBillyInfidel (This tagline has been formatted to fit the screen. Some content has been edited.)
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To: SeekAndFind

CO2 is NOT a pollutant!🙄


6 posted on 11/02/2022 8:11:23 AM PDT by BiteYourSelf ( Earth first, we'll strip mine the other planets later.)
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To: BiteYourSelf

RE: CO2 is NOT a pollutant!

No, but they are pointing to it as a major culprit in WARMING the Planet, thus causing the ice caps to melt and the oceans to rise, eventually flooding our cities and making them uninhabitable ( while many of them actually LIVE near the ocean ).


7 posted on 11/02/2022 8:13:12 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: Rurudyne

“ Inconvenient fact 3: the environmentalists wanting EVs will fight tooth and nail to prevent expanding the grid to handle the load, including nuclear.”

That’s because the real objective here is to eliminate personal vehicles altogether. The powers that be don’t want us peons exercising our right to freedom of movement. We’re supposed to stay put in our little urban sweatbox, watching state propaganda tv while consuming insect sandwiches.


8 posted on 11/02/2022 8:13:14 AM PDT by Orosius (A)
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To: SeekAndFind

My twenty-year-old truck burns gasoline. My neighbor’s EV burns coal. Lol


9 posted on 11/02/2022 8:13:57 AM PDT by bruoz
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To: SeekAndFind

Our ‘leaders’ must be looking at we serfs saying
to themselves:
Sigh, you just can’t teach an old horse new tricks.
Off to the glue factory they go....


10 posted on 11/02/2022 8:16:01 AM PDT by V K Lee (Our CONSTITUTION. Written with DIVINE assistance by very wise men. A document Unlike any other.)
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To: SeekAndFind

It still takes fossil fuels to make electric cars, and to mine/transport/convert the metals into batteries.


11 posted on 11/02/2022 8:18:24 AM PDT by kaktuskid
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To: Orosius

That’s inconvenient fact 4....


12 posted on 11/02/2022 8:20:28 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: bruoz

Claim you’re gonna convert to producer gas, then tell your neighbor you both can burn coal.


13 posted on 11/02/2022 8:22:08 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: V K Lee

They call that forced composting in California.


14 posted on 11/02/2022 8:23:33 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: DannyTN

does that include the mining?


15 posted on 11/02/2022 8:23:42 AM PDT by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives, cut the cable tv)
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To: Rurudyne

yep its going to be shut up and get on the bus

the real goal is public transportation

only the rich and powerful will have personal transportation


16 posted on 11/02/2022 8:24:59 AM PDT by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives, cut the cable tv)
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To: Orosius

bingo!


17 posted on 11/02/2022 8:25:52 AM PDT by joshua c (to disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives, cut the cable tv)
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To: joshua c

I believe it was Bloom County that revealed that the blessed peon waves as the glorious leader drives by, blowing kisses at his solid gold limo.


18 posted on 11/02/2022 8:27:28 AM PDT by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher)
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To: SeekAndFind
Burning ship carrying lithium EV cars sank outside of the Azores

HazmatLithium battery fires

The cargo ship Felicity Ace, carrying thousands of cars, has sunk due to the fire onboard which occurred in mid February. The ship carried a large amount of electric cars, and the burning lithium on board is thought to have made extinguishing efforts much worse.

In mid-February, a large fire broke out on the cargo ship Felicity Ace, which transported thousands of cars to the United States - including an unknown number of electric cars that are believed to have made the situation worse.

The 200 meter long cargo ship Felicity Ace sank after a fire that broke out on board, and lasted for 13 days, reports the news agency AP. The ship was transporting around 4,000 cars between Germany and the United States. The fire started on one of the cargo decks on February 16.

At the time, the ship was located about 100 kilometers from the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The 22 crew members were able to be quickly evacuated without any injuries. When the ship sank, the fire had finally been extinguished, and Felicity Ace was in the process of being towed towards shore.

Just a matter of time before a e-car battery fire in a parking garage below a high rise will result in extensive damage to the building & possibly multiple deaths.

19 posted on 11/02/2022 8:32:55 AM PDT by BluH2o
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To: joshua c

Probably. I haven’t seen figures.

I doubt fossil fuel expenditure for mining nuclear fuel comes anywhere near the energy produced

You do have some environmental concerns with the mining itself including waste products from the mining process and radioactive dust.


20 posted on 11/02/2022 8:41:30 AM PDT by DannyTN (to)
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