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In March, the Biden administration issued a new directive requiring U.S. automakers to cut the average carbon emissions of their fleets by almost 50% before 2032. That order is one component of President Biden’s larger goal to cut total U.S. carbon emissions in half by 2030. A primary method for reaching these goals will involve switching over from fossil-fueled vehicles to hybrid or electric vehicles (EVs).
Straight Arrow News contributor Larry Lindsey warns us that solving for the problem of carbon emissions is not quite as easy as all this might sound. Lindsey reviews recent data from Norway, China and the United States to help outline the obstacles that the United States might encounter as it pursues those goals, and concludes that the math for EVs, as things stand right now, just doesn’t add up.
In Norway, electric production had to rise 20% in order to meet the demand for all those new electric vehicles. In the U.S., it’s estimated that if we turn the entire fleet over to electric vehicles, we’d have to have 25% more electricity generation. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, probably haven’t, because it’s not happening, we’re not building new electric generating capacity, we’re not building the electricity we’re going to need to power all those EVs when they finally hit the market.
Let’s take a look at another country involved, and that’s China. China is currently the world’s biggest electric vehicle maker. It’s also the biggest miner for a lot of the parts and stuff that go into the battery. Well, China’s about the dirtiest producer on Earth. And it’s using its dirty production in order to dig out those minerals and to produce those electric vehicles. Two thirds of all Chinese electricity manufacturing comes from fossil fuels, i.e. carbon producing, and they’ve been adding power facilities right and left. 80% of the new ones also come from fossil fuels, almost all of which is from coal. Coal is the most carbon dioxide-polluting element that there is.
So while it may make sense, make us feel good that we’re cutting our carbon, to do so we’re buying cars and batteries from the most carbon-polluting country on the planet. Now, the fact that we’re not building our own electricity generation suggests we’ve got a very bleak future ahead of us. We’re going to see brownouts, less employment, and much more expensive transportation, all to reduce total global greenhouse gas emissions by a total of one half of 1%, meanwhile enriching China and leading to more carbon dioxide emissions there. The EV math does not add up.
