D Johnson submits:
Subject: Electric Vehicles Are an Ideologically Driven Economic Misadventure
American Thinker
January 27, 2023
Electric Vehicles Are an Ideologically Driven Economic Misadventure
By Jerome Corsi <https://www.americanthinker.
As more motorists own electric vehicles (EVs) and experience problems
operating them, evidence shows that the movement to abandon gas-powered
vehicles is ideologically motivated and unsupported by rational economic
calculation.
In January 2023, four Wyoming state senators and two representatives
introduced <https://wyoleg.gov/
Resolution No. SJ004 to ban the sale of EVs in Wyoming by 2035. The proposed
legislation stressed that "Wyoming's vast stretches of highway, coupled with
a lack of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, make the widespread use
of electric vehicles impracticable for the state." The proposed legislation
also noted that "the batteries used in electric vehicles contain critical
minerals whose domestic supply is limited and at risk of disruption."
Moreover, the Senate Joint Resolution explained that "the critical minerals
used in electric batteries are not easily recyclable or disposable, meaning
that landfills in Wyoming and elsewhere will be required to develop
practices to dispose of these minerals in a safe and responsible manner."
Finally, the legislation was premised on the reality that "the expansion of
electric vehicle charging stations in Wyoming and throughout the country
necessary to support more electric vehicles will require massive amounts of
new power generation to sustain the misadventure of electric vehicles."
Over 2 million EVs have been sold
<https://sensiblemotive.com/
although EVs remain less than 1 percent of all vehicles on the road. On
average, EVs cost $10,108 more than a standard vehicle
<https://sensiblemotive.com/
entry-level EVs cost customers between $20,000 and $40,000. In 2023, ongoing
inflationary price increases, supply chain constraints, deteriorating labor
conditions in major manufacturing regions, and component shortages will
drive up
<https://www.statista.com/
prices. Statistica.com predicts EV prices will jump
<https://www.statista.com/
another 37 percent in 2023, driving the average cost of an EV up to more
than $69,000 by the second half of the year.
Image: EV charging stations
<https://commons.wikimedia.
017_5218.jpg> by Mariordo. CC BY-SA 4.0
<https://creativecommons.org/
Le Xie, Ph.D., a professor at Texas A&M University and a research affiliate
at the MIT Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, and his three
academic colleagues co-authored
<https://www.cell.com/joule/
scientific analysis entitled "Toward carbon-neutral electricity and
mobility: Is the grid infrastructure ready?" The authors concluded that one
of the significant barriers to relying upon EVs to spearhead a move to
decarbonize motor vehicles is that the existing electric grid infrastructure
in the United States is not ready
<https://thehill.com/opinion/
carbon-neutral-electric-grid-
the portfolio transformation desired by the global warming community's
demand for achieving
<https://www.iea.org/reports/
ons-by-2050-scenario-nze> Net Zero Emissions (NZE) of carbon dioxide (CO2)
by 2050.
Le Xie and his colleagues noted the "increasing evidence on the impact of
uncoordinated electric vehicle charging on the electric distribution grid
such as transformer overloading at a modest level of EV penetration. In an
article published in The Hill
<https://thehill.com/opinion/
carbon-neutral-electric-grid-
his colleagues asked, "How many electric vehicles charging at the same time
would have blown up your local substation transformer?" They answered that
it would only take a few hundred EVs charging simultaneously to burn out the
local substation transformer in a small Midwest town. In their academic
article, Le Xie and his colleagues explained
<https://www.cell.com/joule/
follows:
With aggressive vehicle electrification goals, there will be a lack of
hosting capacity of today's distribution networks in handling massive
distributed energy resources and EVs. Economic incentives and smart
scheduling could offset the peak-to-valley ratio; however, even in the most
optimistic case (i.e., a flattened total load curve), the limit of the
substation transformers will still likely be exceeded.
Jake Fogleman, a policy analyst at the Independence Institute's Center for
Energy and Environment, highlights another factor limiting EV expansion. NZE
enthusiasts presume EVs contribute to decarbonization primarily because
battery-powered electricity emits no CO2. The problem is that the
electricity needed to recharge EV batteries is generated primarily by
burning hydrocarbon fuels. In an article posted
<https://i2i.org/fossil-fuels-
January 3, 2023, Fogleman referred to the German word Dunkelflaute, which he
translated as "dark doldrums," a term he noted describes a weather pattern
of low wind and limited sunlight that makes generating electricity from
renewable fuels nearly impossible. He wrote:
The event is relatively common in northern and western Europe during the
winter months-hence the German name-and just last month it led to a
devastating spike in [natural] gas prices
<https://www.ons.gov.uk/
nginsights/energy> in the U.K. while forcing Germany to supply nearly half
its electricity needs from coal
<https://www.washingtonpost.
crisis-isnt-over/2022/12/05/
....
In a day-by-day analysis of Colorado's generation of electricity, Fogleman
noted <https://i2i.org/fossil-fuels-
that between December 30, 2022, and January 2, 2023, "Colorado's wind fleet
(with its roughly 4,500 MW of installed capacity) went from producing 2,000
MW of electricity down to the negatives on multiple occasions," while solar
generation, "similarly flatlined on January 2, when overcast skies arrived
in the state."
Fogleman commented that this weather scenario involving an extended period
of low wind and minimal sunshine strains Colorado's electrical grid to a
point that, as the Colorado Public Utilities Commission has warned in a
report published late last year
<https://i2i.org/new-puc-
dos-grid/> , it poses a "significant threat" to future grid reliability. If
the environmental benefit of electric cars depends upon the electricity
being generated by renewables, states like Colorado may face an
insurmountable barrier in that wind and sunlight are unreliable sources of
energy in winter months.
Germany's Welt noted
<https://www.welt.de/
ef-warnt-vor-Stromausfaellen-
socialmedia.socialflow....
president of the German Federal Network Agency [the bureaucracy regulating
gas and electricity], warned that the growing number of private electric car
charging stations and electric-powered pumps could overload the power grid
in Germany. "If very large numbers of new heat pumps and stations continue
to be installed, then we'll have to worry about overload problems and local
power failures...if we do not act...."
On September 1, 2022, one week after California approved a bold plan
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/
ml> to ban the sale of gasoline cars by 2035, California underwent a heat
wave. The extreme weather that prompted environmentalists to ban gas
vehicles ironically caused the California Independent System Operator, the
group managing the state's power grid, to ask EV owners
<https://www.nytimes.com/2022/
-charging.html> not to charge their vehicles during peak hours.
Though not deterring global warming hysterics, EV customer complaints are
mounting. A Tesla owner posted a video
<https://www.tiktok.com/@
ZqFqXr&is_from_webapp=v1> on TikTok complaining that he was stranded
<https://www.zerohedge.com/
stmas-eve-after-cold-weather-
on Christmas Eve because the cold weather paralyzed the EV battery. A
British owner of a £65,000 [$80,457] EV lamented
<https://
cart/> that the vehicle spent months at a time in the repair shop "on
account of innumerable electrical calamities," and two of three roadside
chargers are "broken or busy at any one time."
Yet, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on January
17, 2023, Faith Birol, the executive director of the International Energy
Agency (IEA), predicted that by 2030
<https://oilprice.com/Energy/
-Markets-Will-Be-Electric-By-
the U.S., and China, the three largest car markets for EVs, will be EVs. In
her enthusiasm, Birol ignored the IEA's Global EV Outlook 2022 that warned
mineral constraints loom
<https://www.iea.org/reports/
as EV sales break records. With China now processing most EV battery metal,
battery supply chains face bottlenecks and lack diversification.
******************************
Since 2004, Jerome R. Corsi has published 25 books on economics, history,
and politics, including two #1 New York Times bestsellers. In 1972, he
received his Ph.D. from the Department of Government at Harvard University.
He currently resides in New Jersey with his family. His current book, The
Truth About Energy, Global Warming, and Climate Change: Exposing Climate
Lies in an Age of Disinformation <https://amzn.to/3OO8vet> , was published
on June 28, 2022. Dr. Corsi's new website, DrJeromeCorsi.com
<https://drjeromecorsi.com/> , is now on the Internet in its first
development phase.
<https://www.americanthinker.
deologically_driven_economic_
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