Posted on 03/22/2024 12:13:41 PM PDT by Red Badger
Not since Prohibition has the federal government sought to ban a product as popular as the internal combustion engine.
This week, the Environmental Protection Agency released its final emissions standards rule, requiring that 70% of new vehicle sales be pure battery-powered electric or hybrids by 2032.
Prohibition was a disaster and ended 13 years after it began. If implemented, this rule to take away Americans’ choice in cars will be equally harmful.
This new rule comes at a time when auto manufacturers are dialing back on EV investments because EVs are left unsold on dealers’ lots. EV maker Fisker has stopped production. Apple is switching from building EVs to investing in artificial intelligence. Ford has paused shipments of the new F-150 Lightning pickup trucks. Mercedes and BMW no longer plan to go all-electric by 2030.
EVs are more expensive, take a long time to recharge, and lose battery range in cold weather—especially when car heating is used. The bestselling vehicle in America is the F-150 pickup truck, and the electric version costs $17,000 more than the gasoline model and does not have the towing or lugging capability of the gas-powered version.
This rule will put small businesses and farmers who need gasoline-powered pickup trucks out of business. They can’t do their jobs with electric vehicles, because recharging saps valuable time from a day. Consider landscapers who go from house to house improving people’s yards. No charging stations are nearby, and they can’t take two-hour breaks to find a charging station to recharge.
The disproportionate effect on small businesses and agriculture will result in higher prices for services and food, and upward pressures on inflation. People already follow food prices closely and complain that food costs more.
The rule will cause electricity outages because the grid, even by 2032, is unlikely to be set up for 10 million electric vehicles (70% of today’s new car sales) to charge, a number that would grow over time.
Electricity outages mean that people won’t be able to charge their EVs, and that other services and appliances that rely on electricity won’t be reliable either. That means scheduling homework and cooking around when the power comes on.
A companion power-plant rule from the EPA, not yet released in final form, would make electricity more expensive. The proposed rule would require the closure by 2040 of all power plants that did not sequester 90% of carbon emissions. In an act of stunning dishonesty, EPA does not mention its proposed power-plant rule in its final emissions standards rule.
EPA justifies its regulation on the grounds that America will have cleaner air. But EVs are not emissions free, and they impose costs on the environment that gasoline-powered cars do not share. Electrifying the U.S. vehicle fleet would have practically no effect on global temperatures by 2100, even as it raises inflation and lowers gross domestic product.
Electricity for battery-powered vehicles comes from coal and natural gas, rather than renewables. Solar, wind, and nuclear power are generally fully used for other purposes, and additional sources of energy to meet electricity demand come from fossil fuels and hydropower. Until emissions-free fuels are common enough to have a net environmental benefit, battery-powered vehicles will not reduce emissions.
Producing batteries causes emissions. Batteries are produced in China, using energy from coal-fired power plants. Producing batteries for electric vehicles uses carbon, and the longer the range of the battery, the more carbon is used. In addition, transporting batteries from China to the United States generates emissions.
Mining battery ingredients causes environmental damage. EV batteries weigh about 1,000 pounds and can reach 2,000 pounds. About 100,000 pounds of ore are needed to get the lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite, and copper to make the batteries function. To get the 100,000 pounds of ore, it’s necessary to move 500,000 pounds of earth.
Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is partly performed by children who are sent into the mines to retrieve the minerals. China, Chile, Argentina, and Australia are home to potentially damaging lithium mines.
When the battery is worn out, it must be disposed of. Some materials such as plastics, copper, aluminum, nickel, and cobalt are worth recycling. The remainder is disposed of in landfills, using a method to ensure that the lithium-ion batteries do not catch fire.
Raising the cost of transportation and meddling with Americans’ personal mobility is never wise. EVs are not suited for most of America, a large country of wide-open spaces, where inexpensive individual car transportation is a birthright.
This sweeping industrial policy will have disastrous economic and personal effects, as manufacturers waste resources investing in products that many do not want to buy, and as the cost of transportation rises.
Banning alcohol didn’t work as intended, and neither will banning the internal combustion engine.
What about linemen for the utility companies?
They will have to install a LOT more power lines and transformers.
There’s already a shortage of linemen:
Modernizing the grid and an aging workforce drive the need for a new generation of electrical linemen
Product generations in the auto industry take decades to phase in even with the established IC tech. Work to overhaul product lines that started in the 1990s really didn't hit the market until 2010 or so.
NO way are domestic automakers going to be able to invent an entire electric car technology (much of which does not even exist yet) for practical electric cars and then convert 2/3 of their production to build these cars in less than 10 years.
On the other hand, China is building massive electric car manufacturing plants in China to saturate the American market with cheap, poorly engineered electric vehicles made of Chinese manufactured parts assembled by Mexican workers once the new laws hit.
This will wipe out American car makers and gift the US car market to the Chinese in one fell swoop.
American Politicians are selling out the American auto industry to China.
(You could almost say it’s going to be a bloodbath)
😄😅🤣😆😆🤣
Throw in over ten million illegal aliens, inflation, CRT/DEI, coddle muslims, lawfare against Trumpsters . . . all part of the big picture designed to destroy the American middleclass.
Gotta’ destroy the middleclass before the democrat party can create “The New Man.”
US automakers eventually go bankrupt, get bailed out by the federal government and then get nationalized.
Wonder what the UAW will do in the future. betcha policicians and big wigs will still be using gasoline autos.
The rest of us will be using horse drawn autos.
“Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (auto manufacturers, drivers, mechanics, et al), needs to tell the government to bugger off with their edicts!!!!”
Nobody does this because the government is the Mafia, but with better retirement and dental. Companies have an operating certificate granted by the government. (Business license, etc.) Banks have a charter. Anyone is intimidated by the power of the IRS. If the IRS seizes your bank account you’re out of business.
What will stop the EV madness is the fact it simply can’t be done. It would require we increase by factors of five to fifteen, the output of things like coper, nickel (Russia is the world’s largest producer BTW). lithium, etc. Let’s not even mention that the power grid is at capacity. That’s why we sometimes get huge regional blackouts. All those electric cars would require a buildout of anywhere from thirty to sixty percent. If something cannot be done, it won’t be done. Relax, pour a drink and watch all of this go away.
The ONLY automobile companies I would ever consider buying stock in are Tesla, Toyota and maybe Honda.
There was an auto analyst that predicted the only auto manufactures left in 20 years will be Toyota and Tesla.
I believe they are determined to have their legacy be that they led the US into a green energy paradise but in effect will be know as a totally incompetent administration.
Yep, it'd be great to see some electrical/civil engineers really dissect this and break down the true scale and costs. Of course, all we hear is crickets. Back around the time that the East Anglia University "Climategate" e-mails drove the greenies into hiding for almost two years, some of the lab coat-wearing scientist types at EPA went to Lisa Jackson/Richard Windsor and told her that they could not declare CO2 to be a regulated pollutant *based on the data*.
That didn't stop her because the actual science (or just plain old hard facts) don't matter. Power and control is all they care about - and the best interest of the nation and its citizens could not be further from the minds of the people pushing this crap. I'm sure that those EPA scientists got a nice transfer to a file room somewhere, or some other duty that was unmistakably punitive.
NUDGE. Government with it’s rules and regulations won’t ban gas powered engines but they will take away your ability to have them. Had enough yet?
They know nothing about EVs , this guy has one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Yo4LpksWM
I said I feel sorry for the country. That would be “all of US.” Better?
I don’t know. Investors have any number of motivations. I guess that was a rhetorical question…
Force companies to build and sell automobiles that no one wants.
Companies go out of business as they are unable to sell unwanted automobiles.
The people no longer have access to automobiles.
The government then relocates all resident to 15 minute cities.
Problem solved.
The EPA is idiotic! Biden's EPA says they want to clean our air. Meanwhile, China pollutes the atmosphere with abandon, without restrictions, and the smogged air follows jetstreams across the Pacific Ocean... and pollutes the USA.
Biden should force China to implement clean-air policies, because the EPA does not help our situation. But the Biden crime family is more interested in payoffs under the table from China than helping our nation.
He's wrong. Will probably be China's BYD, and possibly Tesla. BYD is in the process of overtaking Tesla in worldwide sales of EVs, which include hybrids with gas tanks. Tesla is selling fully electric vehicles, no hybrids, and Musk is interested in developing a robo-taxi setup and will exit personal sales market in the future. In 20 years, Tesla will mainly be an electricity utility provider, as well as building robots and AI platforms.
Maybe Taco Bell will be the only non-Chinese auto manufacturer left (kidding on this, of course).
GO TO COURT!
Lame duck shits in own nest
#28 Tesla stock was $290.34 on July 17, 2023
Today it is $170.83
Ford lost $12.5 billion in 4 years and counting on electric.
Tesla cars will not be around as they are electric and sales are dropping on the free market. He wants mandates as it is the main way he makes his billions in the car market. Mostly because he sells made up “carbon credits”. He sells to the other car companies and industry to offset the gas cars mileage as imposed by the EPA. His car price is dropping now and the stock is way down.
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