They’re super excited to force Other People onto buses, trains, and bikes. Of course, one major thing missing is Michael Schneider, founder of Streets for All, explaining how he only uses mass transit and bikes (also available at Yahoo News not behind paywall)
Op-Ed: Think bigger. Switching to electric cars isn’t enough
It might feel like the easy solution — just replace your gas-guzzling SUV with an electric SUV, and if everyone does that, eventually we’ll solve climate change. You can see why California regulators decided last month that by 2035, all new cars sold in the state must be electric. After all, car exhaust is the single biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, so surely switching gas-powered cars to electric ones will make a huge dent in fighting climate change.
Except it doesn’t. For starters, electric cars still pollute. They don’t have tailpipe emissions, but the process of producing and transporting them creates pollution. According to the International Energy Agency, the average gas-powered car will create 41.9 tons of CO2 emissions from the point it’s manufactured until it’s retired, in contrast to 21.1 tons of CO2 from an EV. In other words, while the average EV will pollute about 50% less compared with a gas-powered car, it’s still highly polluting.
There’s also pollution, and other harms, that come before the manufacturing stage, especially in the intensifying global competition to procure rare earth materials (concentrated in China) for EV batteries. In the past, we have often been dependent on the Middle East for oil. Do we want to create a future in which we’re again dependent on countries that may not be aligned with our values for required materials for our transportation system?
In fairness, Michael is correct, however, we would be cutting out the smog produced from internal combustion engines. To hell with CO2, cleaner air would be nice, right? Remember how nice it was for air quality during lockdown? Still doesn’t mean you should be forced into an EV, though
The second issue is power capacity. During the first week in September, California faced a historic heat wave, and alerts were issued asking EV owners to not charge their vehicles during peak times. And this is at a time when only 1.9% of cars operating in California are EVs. What happens when that number is 5%? Or 20%? Without a dramatic increase in power production from clean sources, it won’t be possible to supply power to all the EVs without ramping up use of coal and natural gas for electricity generation, increasing emissions from fossil fuels.
So, wait, EVs aren’t the solution? Weird. Has he told People’s Republik of California governor Gavin Newsom and President Brandon?
If all cars were electric, we would still spend a disproportionate amount of money building and maintaining car infrastructure, with little left over to build world-class high-speed rail, bus or bike infrastructure inside and between our cities. We would still have outdated parking requirements for developers — which drive up the cost of housing and aggravate sprawl. And because EVs typically weigh more than their gas-powered counterparts, and heavier vehicles wear down the road faster, we will need to spend even more money on maintenance over the long term.
Electric cars aren’t a panacea to solve climate change. They can be part of the solution, but a myopic focus on electric cars as the solution prevents us from seeing so many other ideas. We need a future with fewer cars (electric or not) and much more public transit and bike usage. We need a complete rethink of how we use our public space, and better infrastructure so people can take short trips without using a car.
And there we go, the climate cult is already pushing away from EVs. At least for you peasants.
Isn’t that what we climate realists have been promoting for 15 years? Haven’t we been saying the best idea is to utilize a practical mix of all power sources and vehicles and such? Don’t these religious freaks ever listen to anything someone else says? Of course not. They know it all, ask them.
MAGA
Numbers? Teach don’t you ever bother to fact check? The author in Yahoo News says Cali has 30 million vehicles. Did you bother to check? The total population is 40 million and they have 30 million cars? When I Google I saw 18 million cars.
This year 1 out of every 6 cars, 16%, sold in Cali will be zero emission ” because no one wants an EV” that is 2x as much as 2 years ago. Cali has always been a prediction of the future. This year the cost of the cheapest EV the Bolt will start at 26500$ Also those figures for CO2 emissions for an EV are including the amount of CO2 required to charge them NOW Thst figure goes down every year as dirty coal is replaced by green renewables
By the time you retire Honda will be selling mostly EVs
Dear H:
Ever heard of Google? “The 2022 Chevy Bolt EV goes on sale in the summer of 2021. The Bolt EV 1LT has a Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $31,500, plus a $995 destination charge. The better-equipped Bolt EV 2LT starts at $34,700.”
Plus state tax and document fees we’re looking at $40,000…
For a car that won’t drive from San Fran to San Diego without stopping for an hour or so to recharge.
Our esteemed host began:
Did he? I went to the Los Angeles Times original and didn’t see anything in it in which Mr Schneider told us that he only uses public transportation or bicycles.
Replacing ICE technology with EV technology was NEVER the real goal.
Ending privately owned transportation has ALWAYS been the true goal.
They don’t want ANYONE being able to go ANYWHERE without THEIR PERMISSION.
You don’t pose much of a risk to their grasp on power if your stuck either
walking or taking Public Transit. And THAT is their true goal.
Well at least perhaps, only slightly are they realizing that they will have to strip mine the earth to build EVs. Something I have been saying for years now.
Just like the Chip shortage will have to rely upon certain metals that do not come from the USA. Electric cars and cars, in general, are heavily invested in electronics to run.
In Canada, a Tesla owner was locked out of his Tesla because the Carmaker advised him he needed new batteries. Nothing He was capable of doing could get him into his own car without breaking windows. The battery pack for his Tesla was priced at 26,000 dollars for a 10-year-old car. He wanted to sell the car but could not even get inside to get the papers. (Paperwork is different in Canada than in the USA.)
He bought the paperwork for 30 bucks and sold the car to a guy who can be seen removing the front grille of the Tesla and charging it to get it to run. The man then got inside and disconnected some electronic features so he could start the car. Basically, an EV hacker much like we have Computer and Internet Hackers today everywhere.
This is the future of EVs PUSHED ON YOU BY AN out of control GOVERNMENT.
EV’s are the lefts wet dream because they can be controlled by the automaker or the Government. Rolling blackouts? No problem. We will just shut down your charging stations and if that is not possible we will instruct your cars to not accept electricity during the day.
I looked into Going Solar. I wanted to be off the grid in town and was willing to spend an additional 25,000 dollars to have my excess electricity stored on my premises. The electric company told me no. You have to have gas connected to your home. What if I have my gas hot water heater replaced with electric. Does not matter. Local laws say you must have a meter attached to your home and any electricity generated inside the city limits must be shared on the grid.
So, during rolling brownouts or a blackout, I am at the mercy of the grid and the electric company which has thousands of regulations they must adhere to heat and cool my home. Even if I generate way more electricity than I need I have to give it to the electric company for .012 cents per KWH and then at the end of the year, I will most likely receive a check for 160.00 bucks for the power I fed back into the grid which they sell for .16 cents.
Spending 80,000 dollars so I can be sure I always have electricity is pointless. The only ones that would do that are the really rich or those that have an insane belief the planet is dying. I have neither of those in my favor.
Moving out of town now was an option until interest rates and housing prices started going through the roof. The property in an area we have been eyeing for a couple of years used to sell for around 266,000 dollars at an interest rate of under 3 percent. Today that property is now 699,000 dollars with an interest rate of nearly 5 percent. So here I am a prisoner in my own city and I live in a Red State.