The New Green Idiocy

The politicians in power want to get rid of gas burning cars and replace them with electric cars. Less emissions and they tout less of a carbon footprint. This doesn’t really ring true.  We have about 287 million vehicles on the road.  What happens when we go electric?  The power plants will need to triple electricity production (this is a guess on my part).  Presently we have about 540,00 electric cars on the road.

The biggest sales incentive for electric cars, is that they are environment friendly.  They claim that you can charge a vehicle for about $13 dollars for a fill up and at a cost of 4 cents a mile. If the US went to electric cars, imagine the tax loss to the government on gasoline; 18 cents per gallon federal excise tax, 67 cents California tax, and 9% sales tax on the price, comes out to about $1.20 a gallon.

 The environmentalists talk about green earth and they miss the point.  The amount of electricity needed to supply trucks to transport goods for delivery is not even feasible using present power plant output.  The funny thing is that it involves burning more coal and natural gas to produce the power needed.

If you look at the diagram below, coal and natural gas are 2/3′s of our energy production. The people in charge want to go to wind and solar as a transition to a green earth plan.  It is a little too far-fetched to believe. The current government wind energy program allows doctors or other high earners to get a half million-dollar tax credit for investing in one.

The car industry as a whole, cannot produce an electric car that is profitable.  Elon Musk is not making millions on producing electric cars, but making millions on selling the government tax credits to other car companies.

Quoting Adam Schrader for the Dailymail.com Jan 31, 2021

The electric car maker recorded a net income of $721million in 2020, from a gross profit of $5.4billion.

But the company’s revenues show Tesla would have noted a net loss for 2020 if it had not relied on its lucrative $1.6billion in sales of regulatory zero emission credits to other carmakers.

Regulatory credits are given by the state and federal government for contributing zero pollution to the environment. Carmakers must hold a certain number of credits or face hefty fines or have their business licenses revoked.

Tesla can bank and sell to other carmakers that need help complying with emissions regulations to avoid the heavy fines. 

 Tesla is selling for over $1,000 a share. Kind of reminds me of the South Sea bubble. 

 Energy independence makes gasoline and diesel vehicles a fail-safe form of reliable transportation in times of instability.  Just waiting in line at Costco to get gas makes you marvel at hundreds of cars filling up each hour.  Imagine waiting 3 hours to charge your car at home (no line).  Imagine what you could be charged at a charging station for electricity. Sixty dollars an hour might be a reasonable price; waiting in line wouldn’t be a viable option.

The real concept that needs to be advanced, is using hydrogen to power our vehicles. The trouble is, there is no cash incentive to bring it to fruition. There are billions at stake building electric cars that are unprofitable to produce and at the same time very limited in their range of travel. There is a gold rush among car producers right now, for electric car emission credits from the federal government.  

Running out of electricity is not like running out of gas, but you do have to wonder why electric cars are considered better by the government.  I’ve always said that whatever the government wants you to do, be against it; they don’t have your best interest at mind.  What do I know?