Bummer: Driving An EV Doesn’t Make You Pro-Environment Or Something

The Los Angeles Times is on a roll. After spending a lot of time saying how great EVs are, now they keep pushing pieces saying EVs are bad (non-paywalled at Yahoo)

Commentary: Driving an EV does not make you pro-environment

When I started driving an electric vehicle in 2018, I became part of the problem.

Not for the reasons cited by EV critics during the recent heat wave, when the state asked that electric cars not be charged during peak demand. That prompted howls of “I told you so” from those who think the electrification of everything from home appliances to cars is a left-wing pipe dream, especially in light of California’s mandate requiring 100% of all new vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2035.

Nor am I part of the problem because of the worries expressed ad nauseum by EV skeptics, few of which have much merit. (lots of that stuff – snip past it)

And that’s part of the problem. In the end, an electric car is still, well, a car — and mass car ownership has devastating environmental consequences beyond tailpipe emissions.

I became part of this car culture in 2018, after The Times moved from downtown L.A. to El Segundo. Until then I was a dedicated transit commuter and even held out for months after The Times’ relocation. But five hours a day on buses and trains eventually got to me, so I leased a Nissan Leaf.

See, all cars are bad. But, Paul Thornton never does say that he’s stopped driving his Leaf. Weird, that.

But electric vehicles, like gas-powered cars, require vast expanses of concrete and asphalt for automotive use. This paving over of entire regions has turned neighborhoods into heat sinks that soak up energy from the sun during the day and release it at night — not exactly what we want in an era of accelerating climate change.

That’s called the Urban Heat Island effect, and, while man caused, is not global and has nothing to do with greenhouse gases.

And electric vehicles, like gas-powered cars, force their drivers to sit in the same traffic jams as everyone else, often on freeways that required the bulldozing of long-established, minority communities to be built. In Downey, locals are fighting a highway expansion plan that would displace residents from more than 200 homes. I haven’t asked, but something tells me “yeah, but more electric cars” wouldn’t convince those residents to give up fighting for their homes.

Of course there’s a raaaaacist component.

And what kind of systemic change would that be? Build out a big public transit system (L.A. is trying), and make it free, reliable and safe. Subsidize the purchase of electric bikes, which make it easier to commute longer distances on devices that use considerably less power and road space than electric cars. Think more of what people in neighborhoods need than what people driving through those neighborhoods want.

But, not for Warmists like Paul. Just for the Other People.

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