Does our transportation secretary understand how our electricity is generated?
Does our transportation secretary understand how our electricity is generated?
A fter reminding Americans that the Democrats’ infrastructure proposal includes a “$12,500 discount” for electric cars, transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg declared that “families who own that vehicle will never have to worry about gas prices again.”
Indeed. And if every American rode a ten-speed bicycle to work, no one would have to worry about fuel costs at all.
In reality, though, without state “incentives” and “discounts,” electric cars would be prohibitively expensive for everyone but millionaires. Even with all these state “investments,” the average price of an electric car is around $19,000 higher than the price of an average gas-powered vehicle. Surely, one day electric cars won’t be as pricey — but today, they are. Most families cannot afford them, so buying them wouldn’t make much sense. Mass electric-car ownership — and right now, those cars make up less than 2 percent of the American market — would mean completely retooling our nation’s infrastructure.
While Buttigieg may be able to bike to work in his suit in one of the most expensive cities in America, most people do not have that luxury. Nor do they have the funds to buy a high-performance Ford Mach-E GT, which costs around $65,000, for their security detail to follow them around in. The average D.C. resident clocks in with around 7,000 miles driven per year. The typical American averages twice that amount. And despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent on new public-transportation projects over the past decade, Americans continue to drive more each year. Which is one reason every progressive climate plan proposes artificially hiking fossil-fuel costs.
It’s worth asking: Does our transportation secretary understand how our electricity is generated? Does he know that those costs can also fluctuate?
Natural-gas prices have increased over 150 percent in a year’s time — with help from Biden-administration policy. More than 40 percent of our electricity is generated by natural gas. Plugging your car into an outlet for 15 hours every night is going to cost plenty if Democrats get their way and make fossil fuels more expensive.
Right now, fossil fuels are responsible for generating around 60 percent of our electricity — with nuclear, a source that Buttigieg now opposes, responsible for another 20 percent. The remaining 20 percent — often at tremendous up-front costs — is generated by renewable sources. Unreliable wind energy is responsible for 8.4 percent of renewables, hydro another 7.3 percent, and despite decades of mandates, subsidies, and promises, only 2.3 percent is provided by solar.
The notion that United States is going to go “clean” by 2030 or 2050 — or whatever year Democrats are now promising — without some yet-to-be discovered mind-blowing technological advance, is about as realistic as every family of four in Iowa going out and buying a Tesla. To reach that goal would mean taking on colossal economy-destroying costs, imposing draconian state-imposed restrictions on economic growth and freedom, and accepting a steep deterioration in our standard of living.
Considering the political implications of gas hitting a mere $3.50 per gallon recently, the chances that Americans are going to consent to any iteration of the Green New Deal are remote. And just a reminder: The IPCC says that the world must sustain COVID-level economic recessions every year until 2030 to hit the goals of the Paris agreement that Joe Biden just rejoined.
None of this is to even wade into the debate over electric-car efficiency. A recent study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative found that battery and fuel production of electric cars generated higher emissions than did the manufacturing of a new gas-powered car, but that energy efficiency over time would make them more green. But the changes that would transform the electric car into an earth-saving machine are highly unlikely to occur anytime soon.
As a political matter, it’s perplexing to see the dismissive reaction of administration officials to issues that worry Americans. Voters are nervous about inflation, so White House chief of staff Ron Klain tells them that it’s merely a “high-class problem.” Voters are anxious about supply-chain disruptions, so White House press secretary Jen Psaki calls it the “tragedy of the treadmill that’s delayed.” Higher gas prices are hurting Democrats at the polls, so Mayor Pete tells everyone to go out and buy a brand-new Tesla.