According to the state Air Resources Control Board, California is mandating by executive fiat the electrification of all new vehicles purchased in California by 2035. Not mentioned is the cost of the mandate or who will pay for it.
The first issue is fire safety. According to Business Insider, “Car fires have always been dangerous and difficult for firefighters, but highly combustible chemicals in electric car batteries are posing new challenges. One major difference is the possibility of what’s referred to as a ‘thermal runaway,’ in which an EV [electric vehicle] battery falls into a cycle of overheating and over-pressurizing, causing fires and sometimes explosions.”
Even minor fender-bender accidents can cause a short-circuit, causing a fire. Fires in EVs are difficult to extinguish using conventional methods and, unlike fires in fossil fuel-powered vehicles, create large amounts of contaminated water and hazardous waste from the carcass of the burned-out vehicle.
Who pays for this? The owner of the car must pay to replace his vehicle and/or anything else that’s damaged (like their house) in the fire. Taxpayers pay to extinguish the fire. But who pays for waste cleanup and disposal?
And what about the distribution system upgrades that will be required to support increased power loads? One local power utility manager told me that if every single-family house on any city block were to have an EV charging station in their home, the utility would have to double the number of transformers serving the block and rewire the distribution system to handle the load.
These improvements will cost millions of dollars.
One fleet car rental company recently sold all its EVs at a loss because no one would rent them, primarily because of the limited travel distance between recharges and the difficulty finding recharging stations and the two-to-six-hour wait while they recharged.
These are just some of the issues to consider when you place your vote; Gov. Gavin Newsom issued this mandate by executive order. There was no public debate, voters weren’t allowed to choose the mandatory change to EVs, and the state Assembly didn’t debate the positive or negative aspects of the change.
Newsom is termed out, but someone will step up and ask for your vote. The first thing voters should ask a new candidate for governor is about the EV mandate: Who will pay for it?
One good way to kill an economy and place an untenable economic burden on the average family is to require this change. Whether you’re rich or poor, an environmental activist, or just don’t care, when electrical fees and taxes are increased to pay for system upgrades, you and I will be paying for this.
Ron Fink
Lompoc
This article appears in May 9-19, 2024.
All I had to read was Mr. Fink’s first argument to know that the rest of his uninformed screed against EV’s is utter crap.
According to Motor Trend, a study done in Sweden (the U.S. has no similar studies) noted that of 3,400 car fires a year in that nation, only about 16 of them were EV’s or hybrids. Mr. Fink makes it sound like they happen every day. He is a victim of right-wing media, which provides over coverage of Tesla fires and how hard they are to put out. Most right-wing media is in the pocket of big oil.
Furthermore, the Swedish study shows that 98% of car fires happen to cars with internal combustion engines and those cars are 29 times more likely than EV’s to catch fire. 34% of automobiles on the road in Sweden are electric. The study also finds the number of EV fires has not grown with more of the cars on the road. The number has basically stayed the same.
Of course, Mr. Fink will get his way if Trump is elected. A Trump administration would strip away Biden era regulations to the benefit of big oil and the detriment of the climate. Big oil, leery that a second Trump administration would be chaotic, distracted and just not smart enough, has already drawn up plans for Trump to issue executive orders nullifying Biden’s green initiatives in the first 90 days. That big oil is actually writing these executive orders should worry Americans.
With a larger number of EV’s on the road, progress in slowing global warming has already started. According to a study out of UC Berkeley, there is recorded evidence “that the adoption of electric vehicles is measurably lowering the area’s carbon emissions.” Many scientists, including renowned climatologist Michael Mann, believe that if we move expeditiously away from burning fossil fuels, we can mitigate the worst effects of climate change. A second Trump administration with big oil in the driver’s seat could guarantee we will experience the worst ravages of man-made climate change in the near future and long term.
For more information:
https://www.motortrend.com/features/you-ar…
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/Wo…
https://news.berkeley.edu/2024/04/04/evs-a…
All I needed was the title of this letter.
My son can go on at great lenghts about EVs. I get lost in all the facts he can retain. I am not able to compete at that level. I agree, appreciate and often share when the faacts are persented by others.
EVs are not the only ‘save the planet’ idea that will not work.
All too often, production costs are not fully discussed and taken into consideration.
We are ‘sold a bill of goods’ that will not give us what is promised.
Sales are faling like any new but impractical product.
Those able to afford the first ones available have theirs and very few other are buying.