The dirty side of clean energy and electric vehicles (Connectuct Mirror Viewpoint)
by Peter A. Thalheim
October 24, 2023
The opinion piece on September 21 in CTMirror by the State Director of the Sierra Club Connecticut was an unfortunate exercise in gaslighting in support of electric vehicles.
We all do and should love the environment. We only have one. But we should not overstate our argument lest we undermine effective longer term changes in consumption methods to better help our environment. And we should keep environmental equity in mind. We should do whatever we can for the environment provided it does not raise the cost of living for the poor.
In her article, the Sierra Club director emphasized potential health benefits of electric vehicles but then went to the biggest myth of electric vehicles as “pollution-free transportation.” That is false on so many fronts.
First and foremost, the electricity for an electric vehicle must come from somewhere. Either the electricity comes from natural gas, coal, petroleum, wind, solar, nuclear, hydroelectric or other sources. In Connecticut, the environmental results can be better if the electricity comes from the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, after that comes in order of production, natural gas and petroleum, with renewables bringing up the rear.
The International Energy Association projected that “the mineral demand for use in EV’s and battery storage [will grow] at least thirty times between 2021 and 2040. Lithium would see the fastest growth, with demand growing by over 40 times in the SDS [Sustainable Development Scenario] by 2040.” To get to net zero by 2050 ‘would require six times more mineral inputs in 2040 than [2021].”
New mines and refining the minerals from the milled ores would have to be established. That is the dirty side to clean energy, not to mention the resource intense requirements of building an electric vehicle. Milling requires great quantities of water, electricity and chemicals to separate the mineral from the earth and the resultant slag heaps that leach chemicals for centuries.
Which hillsides and mountainsides will be blasted to smithereens? It won’t happen in your back yard. Will it be the $67 billion in nickel, copper and cobalt buried under pristine wilderness in the outback of Canada, on and near the lands of indigenous Canadians? Electric vehicles and green technology mean six times more mining in countries populated with people of color and indigenous people, with whom the Sierra Club director professed compassion. Will the cobalt mines of the Congo be expanded where children toil in open mines under armed guard?
How much an electric car pollutes in its manufacturing and use depends on the energy production where it is used. A comparison of a Mercedes four door diesel C220d sedan to a Tesla Model 3 in Munich, Germany calculated the carbon dioxide emissions at 141 grams per kilometer for the Mercedes and 156-181 grams per kilometer for the Tesla which included “the carbon emitted to drill, refine, and transport its fuels.” The Tesla’s carbon footprint would have done better in France, which has significantly more power generated by nuclear energy versus Germany, which has more coal-generated power.
Connecticut does not have the sun of the American southwest for solar power generation. And the offshore wind farms proposed by Gov. Ned Lamont only promise significantly higher electric bills for our poor along with all other Connecticut residents with skyrocketing costs for the minerals and materials necessary to build these wind farms.
Most recently, Connecticut begged the Biden Administration to reinterpret legislation for “bonus tax credits,” for our offshore wind projects due to cost increases on a magnitude that our citizen utility rate payers “may be unable to absorb these significant new costs alone.” And right there environmental equity is breached, as the poor are required to pay more for their electricity.
By no means should Connecticut, one of only a handful of states that has failed to regain the jobs it lost in the Great Recession of 2008-2009, increase the cost of living again for those who live here by following the folly of California.
That state, with its stellar weather and natural beauty, has achieved the unthinkable of forcing more residents and capital to leave the state than arrive.
Please continue reading at https://ctmirror.org/2023/10/24/ct-electric-cars-clean-vehicles-env...
Peter Thalheim of Stamford is the author of “Tesla Carbon Pigs, Climate Change, Environmental Equity and Liberal Democracy.”
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Comment by Willem Post on October 30, 2023 at 11:03am
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Walk-in Open Border Idiocies
Many countries are saving money by cleaning out their slums, populated with unskilled, uneducated, inexperienced, socially challenged, crime-inclined people
With help of 1) privately financed NGOs (Soros, Hollywood actors, etc.,) and 2) the parasitic, criminal-infested, human trafficking infrastructure, to provide those folks with food, clothing, shelter, transport, etc., as they travel north for weeks, until they finally arrive at our southern border, which is welded open by Biden’s handlers, to enable those folks to walk in unhindered, unvetted, and be distributed far and wide.
The total US cost is at least $100 billion for the first year, $150 billion the second year, $200 billion the third year, on an A-to-Z basis.
We could have finished the wall for one tenth the money, and have none of these society-dividing, unvetted, undocumented, illegal aliens
The Statue of Liberty mentions “welcoming the poor, the homeless” made perfect sense in the 19th century with a rapidly expanding industrial economy desperate for uneducated, unskilled workers.
It is long overdue to remove those words and replace them with “we welcome the highly educated and experienced, and those with business ownership experience
Sweden, Germany, France, etc., after much travail, finally are moving to the highly skilled, experienced standard.
They found the present standard has caused major adverse effects, on their societies and cultures
Europe was sucking on Russia’s low-cost energy tits, life was easy, economies were growing, workers were needed.
With high-cost energy and high costs of climate idiocies, unskilled, inexperienced, cultural-clashing folks are just too costly.
Many of them, especially those with criminal records, will be send back to their original countries.
CO2 Emissions
The annual CO2 reductions by the EU/US, etc., are much less than the annual CO2 increases by China/India, etc.
That trend will not change for decades, because China/India, etc., are building hundreds of new, efficient coal plants, that last at least 50 years, and have at least 3 times more CO2/kWh than gas-fired, combined-cycle, gas-turbine power plants, CCGTs, which, in base-loaded mode, have efficiencies of 60+%
Russian Gas
Russia has the 56-inch diameter, 2466-mile, Power of Siberia 1 gas pipeline, capacity 61 bcm, of which up to 38 bcm to China.
Russia will have the 1616-mile Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline from Yamal Peninsula to China, designed to deliver, via Mongolia, up to 50 bcm to China.
That means gas, previously sent to the EU, will go to China.
The EU will be in near-zero, real-growth mode, by importing LNG, mostly from the US, at about 2 to 3 times the price.
China CO2
China has the particulate and CO2 emissions from the factories that were once in the West.
The US climate idiots get to virtue signal, as they consume China’s products
Wokachusetts
Wokeachusetts climate idiots are proudly bragging how energy efficient/clean Wokachusetts is, after having closed almost all of its blue-collar industries.
Wokachusetts has a “clean” economy, based on higher education, hospitals, high tech firms, and tourism.
Mass wokies are so virtuous, because they have a low carbon footprint!
Mass wokies do not mention the carbon footprint of what we import from China, Europe, Mexico, etc.
Complain to enviro-groups and politicians about this absurdity, and you get ignored/blacklisted/cancelled/become unemployable.
Actually, I do not care about any carbon footprint, because CO2 is a very minor actor in the overall CO2 picture
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/co2-is-a-life-gas-no-c...
Mass wokies get federal money to “welcome” illegal aliens
Mass wokies use federal money to house illegals in up-scale hotels, and feed, clothe, transport, educate, etc., them at huge expense.
The subsidized, lapdog media has been told not to call them undocumented, illegal aliens, but “migrants”.
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The wind is blowing “somewhere”
Is there a lot of wind in that “somewhere” place?
Is the somewhere place moving around?
Do we have wind turbines in all the “somewhere” places?
Turn the US into a collection of pin cushions, plus a lot of wires to connect them and to where people are consuming the electricity?US/UK 66,000 MW OF OFFSHORE WIND BY 2030; AN EXPENSIVE FANTASY
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/biden-30-000-mw-of-off...EXCERPTS
New York State had signed contracts with EU big wind companies for four offshore wind projects
Sometime later, the companies were trying to coerce an additional $25.35 billion (per Wind Watch) from New York ratepayers and taxpayers over at least 20 years, because they had bid at lower prices than they should have.
New York State denied the request on October 12, 2023; “a deal is a deal”, said the Commissioner
Owners want a return on investment of at least 10%/y, if bank loans for risky projects are 6.5%/y.
The 3.5% is a minimum for all the years of hassles of designing, building, erecting, and paperwork of a project
Below contract prices, paid by Utilities to owners, are after a 50% reduction, due to US subsidies provided, per various laws, by the US Treasury to the owners. See Items 4 and 6
Oersted, Denmark, Sunrise wind, contracted at $110.37/MWh, contractor needs $139.99/MWh, a 27% increase
Equinor, Norway, Empire 1 wind, contracted at $118.38/MWh, contractor needs $159.64/MWh, a 35% increase
Equinor, Norway, Empire 2 wind, contracted at $107.50/MWh, contractor needs $177.84/MWh, a 66% increase
Equinor, Norway, Beacon Wind, contracted at $118.00/MWh, contractor needs $190.82/MWh, a 62% increase
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/liars-lies-exposed-as-...The EIA continues its phony LCOE evaluations of wind and solar, which exclude major LCOE items, regarding:
Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement and very expensive battery system storage
A fleet of quick-reacting power plants for counteracting/balancing the variable output of wind/solar
Additional power plants for making up the electricity shortfall during low wind/solar conditions
Output curtailments during high wind/solar conditions, i.e., paying owners not to produce what they could have producedWind and solar would not exist without at least 50% subsidies and above freebies
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Maine as Third World Country:
CMP Transmission Rate Skyrockets 19.6% Due to Wind Power
Click here to read how the Maine ratepayer has been sold down the river by the Angus King cabal.
Maine Center For Public Interest Reporting – Three Part Series: A CRITICAL LOOK AT MAINE’S WIND ACT
******** IF LINKS BELOW DON'T WORK, GOOGLE THEM*********
(excerpts) From Part 1 – On Maine’s Wind Law “Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine if the law’s goals were met." . – Maine Center for Public Interest Reporting, August 2010 https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/From Part 2 – On Wind and Oil Yet using wind energy doesn’t lower dependence on imported foreign oil. That’s because the majority of imported oil in Maine is used for heating and transportation. And switching our dependence from foreign oil to Maine-produced electricity isn’t likely to happen very soon, says Bartlett. “Right now, people can’t switch to electric cars and heating – if they did, we’d be in trouble.” So was one of the fundamental premises of the task force false, or at least misleading?" https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/wind-swept-task-force-set-the-rules/From Part 3 – On Wind-Required New Transmission Lines Finally, the building of enormous, high-voltage transmission lines that the regional electricity system operator says are required to move substantial amounts of wind power to markets south of Maine was never even discussed by the task force – an omission that Mills said will come to haunt the state.“If you try to put 2,500 or 3,000 megawatts in northern or eastern Maine – oh, my god, try to build the transmission!” said Mills. “It’s not just the towers, it’s the lines – that’s when I begin to think that the goal is a little farfetched.” https://www.pinetreewatchdog.org/flaws-in-bill-like-skating-with-dull-skates/
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Hannah Pingree on the Maine expedited wind law
Hannah Pingree - Director of Maine's Office of Innovation and the Future
"Once the committee passed the wind energy bill on to the full House and Senate, lawmakers there didn’t even debate it. They passed it unanimously and with no discussion. House Majority Leader Hannah Pingree, a Democrat from North Haven, says legislators probably didn’t know how many turbines would be constructed in Maine."
https://pinetreewatch.org/wind-power-bandwagon-hits-bumps-in-the-road-3/
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