EVER WONDER WHY OUR LEFTIST GOVERNMENT AIMS TO PUT US IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES?

EVER WONDER WHY OUR LEFTIST GOVERNMENT AIMS TO PUT US IN ELECTRIC VEHICLES?

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/ever-wonder-why-our-le...

By Dr. Jay Lehr and Tom Harris 

 

PART 1

 

The Biden administration may be evil as it relates to virtually all of its new directives but, no matter what it appears to be, it is not dumb. It knows what it is doing.

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The underlying purpose of everything it does is to reduce our freedoms and increase the government’s command/control over our lives.

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One of its strategies has escaped even the most conservative of thinkers. It is the promotion of EVs. They well know, as we will show in the following paragraphs, the nation’s roads can never be crowded with EVs. See Appendix.

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There is not now, nor will there ever be, sufficient electric power for us to travel hither and yon with EVs.

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So, who decides who gets electricity, and when it will be available?

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Answer: your friendly liberal, “progressive,” leftist government, who we, mistakenly or not, placed in power.

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EVs are clearly one of the most-hyped innovations of our lifetime. Whereas, our federal government and the state of California think that the gasoline vehicle will soon end up in the dustbin of history, it just isn’t going to happen for a variety of reasons:

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1) The most obvious is EVs are about 15 to 20% more expensive than comparable gasoline vehicles, plus financing costs have increased, due to higher interest rates. These two items will not allow the average American family to own one.

Efficient gasoline vehicles will always:

 

- Be far cheaper than comparable EVs,

- Transport you much further on a tank of gas; range anxiety

- Refuel in just 5 to 10 minutes, vs up to several hours with a fast charger, that would damage the battery after frequent use.

- Last at least 12 years, vs at most 8 years for an EV, which would need a very expensive battery replacement.

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2) EVs can never be produced in the numbers the government wants, because of a lack of necessary rare earth minerals held hostage in China.

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3) Availability of charging stations will never be adequate. And the time required to recharge on a long trip will make you cancel any long trip.

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4) The cost of a battery replacement will be a significant turn-off as well.

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Okay, maybe these are not so obvious to the general consumer. But here are the even less obvious deterrents.

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If, after reading these reasons for electric misery, you remain a big fan, write us and explain why.

We will write another article rebutting your point of view.

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TESLA

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Let’s first get Elon Musk and Tesla out of the way. Tesla will likely remain a car for higher-income households.

In 2021, Tesla sold many cars, such as the $55,000, Model 3, a 4-dr sedan, similar to a Honda Accord, and the $65,000 Model Y, similar to a small SUV/Crossover; both models are long range, AWD, no extras, plus transport, dealer prep, state sales tax and documentation. The Model X, a 4-dr, medium-size SUV, and Model S, a 4-dr, medium-size sedan, are around $100,000, and up.

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In California, the average household income of EV owners is upwards of $200,000. If you are not in that high-income range of society, there will likely not be much of an appetite for an EV.

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AVAILABLE ELECTRICITY

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The Laurence Livermore Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy states that the US electricity production is about 4000 TWh, fed to High Voltage grids. It took about 11,400 TWh of energy, fed to power plants, to produce the 4,000 TWh of electricity

The energy used for transportation (gasoline, diesel, EV, etc.) is equivalent to 8,500 TWh, of which an infinitesimal amount is already electric.

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Where would the additional 8,500 TWh come from, if gasoline and diesel were banned, and all vehicles were EVs?

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The same governments plan for producing no more energy from oil, natural gas, coal, or nuclear.

The obvious answer for all liberals is wind and solar, which currently produce about 12.5%, or 500 TWh, of annual electricity.

 

2021 Sources	TWh	%
Hydro	260	31.5
Biomass	55	6.7
Geo	16	1.9
Wind	380	46.0
Solar	115	13.9
Total	826	100.0

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In what locations will we build enough solar and wind installations just for EVs?

We cannot, because it would require 8500/500 = 17 times the existing wind and solar.

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We have neither the economic resources, nor the suitable, windy land and sea areas, to even consider this.

We are already getting a preview of what will happen if our vehicles go all-electric.

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In the U.K., the grid is currently so unstable that EV chargers will be metered separately, which allows them to be charged and taxed at a higher rate than domestic electricity.

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It is important to note California, where half of US EVs are located, already imports more electricity than any other state– , currently at 32% from the Northwest and Southwest, and has pixie-dust HOPES nearby states will be able to generate enough power to meet the demands of the California in the future.

 

During US Southwest heat waves, their electricity supply to California likely would be near zero, because it would needed in their own states.

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RANGE

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Just as golf carts may be fun and legal to run around your neighborhood, if you so are inclined, so are EVs.

However, what would it take to carry out a long trip in one?

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Let’s run through the numbers.

We will go first class in a Tesla Model Y on a trip of 270 miles, which only a Tesla can now do on a single charge.

It will take us 4.5 hours to drive 270 miles, and about 1.5 to 2.0 hours to recharge the battery at a charging station.

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Unless you have adequately planned, your whole trip will be cursed with range anxiety, a constant worry that you are about to run out of juice, before getting to the next charging station. 

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RANGE REDUCTION CARRYING A LOAD AND COLD WEATHER

 

The range of electric vehicles can fall by up to 25% when made to carry heavy loads, according to a study conducted by the American Automobile Association (AAA) on Ford’s EV pickup truck F-150 Lightning.

That same truck, loaded the same way, would have an additional range reduction of another 25% on colder days.

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/ev-range-dips-nearly-2...

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MILES PER GALLON

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Miles per gallon is disappearing as an advantage when buying an EV, because gasoline vehicles are getting more efficient, and electricity prices are getting higher. The production of EV batteries generates huge amounts of UPSTREAM CO₂.  

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And back at the power station, where the electricity for your EV is generated, someone is burning a lot of coal, or natural gas, or coal, or trees to create it.

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Perhaps your electric car should more accurately be called a coal, natural gas, coal, tree car.

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Oh yes, the tax on your gasoline to keep our roads maintained will soon be replaced by a special tax on your electric vehicle registration, and well, it should be.

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COLD CLIMATES

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During cold days, the nature of batteries is that electricity has more friction getting into and out of the battery, plus cabin heating and lights are needed, plus roads may be covered with snow and ice, all of which requires more kWh/mile, and yields less range (up to 40% less), or more frequent charging.

EV owners in New England, etc., will all learn this soon enough.

 

Advertised ranges on a fully charged battery will not be achieved.

The shortfall will be significant.

Get ready for thousands of motorists stranded on freezing cold highways in states with colder climates..

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CALIFORNIA DREAMING

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The US, California and Vermont are mandating the sale of only EVs by 2035

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California plans to have 25 million EVs in the not-too-distant future.

It already has 50% of the nation’s EVs.

 

But California is not a meaningful role model for the nation at large.

Besides having the best temperate climate in America, it has an average household income of $106,916, and 12.2% of households making over $200,000 a year. In addition, they have an unusual fraction of the population that:

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1) Are mostly highly educated.

2) Are mostly highly compensated.

3) In case of owning an EV, requires about 5,000 miles/y from a gasoline vehicle for long trips and workhorse duty.

4) Have 2 or 3-car garage, which enables convenient at-home charging

Some manufacturers recommend their EVs be charged away from the house, due to potential battery fires.

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Except for those in the higher household income brackets, there will be no appetite for EVs in the foreseeable future.

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The utility companies have said little about cost projections for electricity generating plant and grid augmentation/expansion, and fast-charging systems required to operate EVs, or the increased rates, c/kWh, they will be required to charge their customers.

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Neither wind nor solar can support any of it. EVs will never become the mainstream of transportation!

 

Part 1 was on the problems with EVs, we showed they were: 1) too expensive, 2) too unreliable, 3) rely on materials mined in China and other unfriendly countries, and 4) require more electricity than the nation can afford.

 

Part 2

 

We address other factors that will make any sensible reader avoid EVs like the plague.

 

EV Charging Insanity

 

In order to match the 2,000 cars that a typical filling station can service in a busy 12 hours, an EV charging station would require

 

1) About 600, 50-watt chargers at an estimated cost of $24 million

2) A supply of 30 megawatts of power from the grid. That is enough to power 20,000 homes.

 

It can take 30 minutes to top of the charge in your battery, or up to 8 hours if it is empty empty.

 

ICSC-Canada board member, New Zealand-based, consulting engineer Bryan Leyland describes why installing EV charging stations in a city is impractical:

 

If you’ve got gasoline cars coming to a gas station, they would stay for an average of five minutes.

If you’ve got EVs coming to a charging station, they would stay an average of 0.5 to 1.0 hour.

 

So that’s at least six times the surface area to park the EVs while they being charged.

So, multiply every gas station by six.

Where are you going to find the place to put all those EVs?

 

The government of the United Kingdom is already starting to plan for power shortages caused by the charging of thousands of EVs. Starting in June 2022, the government will restrict the time of day you can charge your EV battery. To do this, they will employ smart meters that are programmed to automatically switch off EV charging in peak time....

 

In particular, the latest UK chargers will be pre-set to not function during 9-hours of peak loads, from 8 am to 11 am (3-hours), and 4 pm to 10 pm (6-hours).

 

Unbelievably, the UK technology decides, when and if an EV can be charged, and even allows EV batteries to be drained into the UK grid, if required.

 

Imagine charging your EV all night, only to discover in the morning that your battery is flat, because the state took the power back.

 

Better keep your gasoline vehicle as a reliable, and immediately available, backup!

 

EV charging will eventually be an attractive source of revenue for the government.

 

Used Car Market

 

The average used EV will need a new battery before an owner can sell it, pricing them well above used gasoline vehicles.

 

The average age of an American car on the road is 12 years.

A 12-year-old EV will be on its second battery.

Exchanging a Tesla battery typically costs $20,000, so there will not be many 12-year-old EVs on the road.

Good luck trying to sell an older EV!

 

True Story

 

Tuomas Katainen, an enterprising Finish Tesla owner, had an imaginative solution to the battery replacement problem—he blew up his car! New York City-based Insider magazine reported (December 27, 2021):

 

“The shop told him the faulty battery needed to be replaced, at a cost of about $22,000. In addition to the hefty fee, the work would need to be authorized by Tesla…Rather than shell out half the cost of a new Tesla to fix an old one, Katainen decided to do something different… The demolition experts from the YouTube channel Pommijätkät (Bomb Dudes) strapped 66 pounds of TNT to the car and surrounded the area with slow-motion cameras…the 14 hotdog-shaped charges erupt into a blinding ball of fire, sending a massive shockwave rippling out from the car…The videos of the explosion have a combined 5 million views.”

 

EVs Per Block in Your Neighborhood

 

At-home charging for a Tesla requires a 75-amp service.

Older houses have 100-amp service, newer houses have 200-amp service.

If 50% of the houses on your city block were to have EVs, the distribution grid would be wildly overloaded.

 

Batteries

 

Modern lithium-ion battery are four times better than old lead-acid battery, but gasoline has 80 times more energy density.

 

The lithium-ion battery in your cell phone weighs about one ounce; the Tesla battery weighs about 1,000 pounds.

What do we get for this huge vehicle cost and weight?

We get a car that is far less convenient, and less useful than gasoline cars. Bryan Leyland explained why:

 

“When the Model T came out, it was a dramatic improvement on the horse and cart. An EV is a step backward; it is similar to gasoline vehicle with a tiny gas tank, that takes 0.5 to 1.0 hour to fill.

It offers nothing in the way of convenience, or extra facilities, other than “feel-good”.”

 

Our Conclusion

 

EVs will always be a niche market, likely never exceeding 10% to 20% of the vehicles on the road.

All automobile manufacturers are investing in EV production, and all will be disappointed in their EV sales.

Perhaps they know this, and will manufacture just what they know they can sell.

This is certainly not what EV proponents are dreaming about.

 

However, for as long as the present government is in power, they will be pushing EVs as another tool to command/control our lives.

We will tell them what we think of their expensive and dangerous plans in November, 2022. 

 

Dr. Jay Lehr is a Senior Policy Analyst with the International Climate Science Coalition and former Science Director of The Heartland Institute. He is an internationally renowned scientist, author, and speaker who has testified before Congress on dozens of occasions on environmental issues and consulted with nearly every agency of the national government and many foreign countries. After graduating from Princeton University at the age of 20 with a degree in Geological Engineering, he received the nation’s first Ph.D. in Groundwater Hydrology from the University of Arizona. He later became executive director of the National Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers.

 

Tom Harris is Executive Director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute. He has 40 years of experience as a mechanical engineer/project manager, science and technology communications professional, technical trainer, and S&T advisor to a former Opposition Senior Environment Critic in Canada’s Parliament.

 

APPENDIX 1

 

Batteries, they do not make electricity.

They store electricity that is produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators.

So, to say an EV is a zero-emission vehicle is not valid.

https://gab.com/TheRISEofROD/posts/107958590257822568

Because about 30% of the US electricity generated by coal-fired plants, EVs on the road are about 30% coal-powered!

Let us take a closer look at EV batteries and solar panels and wind turbines

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/battery-system-capital...

EVs

 

A typical EV battery pack weighs 1000 lb, including:

 

25 lb of lithium

60 lb of nickel

44 lb of manganese

30 lb cobalt

200 lb of copper

400 lb of aluminum, steel, and plastic.

Inside the battery pack are over 6,000 individual lithium-ion cells.

To manufacture each EV auto battery pack, you must process:

 

25,000 lb of brine for the lithium

30,000 lb of ore for the cobalt

5,000 lb of ore for the nickel

25,000 lb of ore for copper

All told, you dig up 500,000 pounds of the earth's crust for one battery pack.

Solar Panels

The main problem with solar arrays is the chemicals needed to process silicate into the silicon used in the panels.

 

To make pure enough silicon requires processing it with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, hydrogen fluoride, trichloroethane, and acetone.

 

In addition, the panels also need gallium, arsenide, copper-indium-gallium-diselenide, and cadmium-telluride, which also are highly toxic.

 

Silicon dust is a hazard to the workers, and the panels cannot be recycled.

Wind Turbines

 

Wind turbines are the ultimate in embedded costs and environmental destruction.

Each wind turbine weighs 1688 tons, including 1300 tons of concrete, 295 tons of steel, 48 tons of iron, 24 tons of fiberglass, and the hard-to-extract rare earths neodymium, praseodymium, and dysprosium.

Each blade weighs 81,000 pounds and will last at most 10 to 15 years, at which time it must be replaced.

We cannot recycle used blades. The must be land-filled!!

Conclusion

 

There may be a place for these technologies, but you must look beyond the myth of zero emissions.  

"Going Green, and Net-Zero” sounds like Utopian ideals, but when you look at the hidden and embedded costs with an open mind, you can see that these “ideals” are more destructive to the Earth's environment than meets the eye.

 

APPENDIX 2

 

Some articles for background music

 

HEAT PUMPS ARE MONEY LOSERS IN MY VERMONT HOUSE, AS THEY ARE IN ALMOST ALL NEW ENGLAND HOUSES

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/heat-pumps-are-money-l...

 

CHEVY BOLT CATCHES FIRE WHILE CHARGING ON DRIVEWAY IN VERMONT

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/chevy-bolt-catches-fir...

 

POOR ECONOMICS AND MINIMAL CO2 REDUCTION OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES IN NEW ENGLAND

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/poor-economics-of-elec...

 

ELECTRIC TRANSIT AND SCHOOL BUS SYSTEMS REDUCE LITTLE CO2, ARE NOT COST-EFFECTIVE

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-bus-systems-l...

 

HERE IS AN EXCELLENT EXPLANATION REGARDING EV CHARGING AT 32F OR LESS

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/here-is-an-excellent-e...

 

I-95 ICE STORM OVERNIGHT TRAFFIC JAM; IMAGINE YOU WERE STUCK IN AN EV

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/i-95-ice-storm-overnig...

 

UNDERSTATING CO2 EMISSIONS PER KILOWATT-HOUR TO HYPE EVs AND HEAT PUMPS

https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/some-ne-state-governme...

 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES COMPARED WITH GASOLINE VEHICLES

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/electric-vehicles-compa...

 

VERMONT CO2 REDUCTION OF EVs IS BASED ON MISREPRESENTATIONS

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-co2-reduction-o...

 

VERMONT CO2 REDUCTION OF ASHPs IS BASED ON MISREPRESENTATIONS

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/vermont-co2-reduction-o...

 

THE PROPER BASIS FOR CALCULATING CO2 OF ELECTRIC VEHICLE

http://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/the-proper-basis-for-ca...