Diane Francis: The problem with electric cars
EVs should not be seen as some sort of panacea for dealing with climate change
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The hype and mythologizing over electric vehicles (EVs) afflicts policy-making and leads to costly subsidies that produce little environmental benefits, according to Danish climate expert Bjorn Lomborg.
“In Norway, there are more EVs per person than anywhere in the world and studies show that people have two cars — a (subsidized) EV car to go `virtue signalling’ and the real car for use for real stuff,” said Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus think tank and a visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution, in an interview with the Financial Post. “Norwegians use the gasoline car a lot more and drive less in a green car. A new study from a select group showed they only drove 5,000 miles a year, on average. This estimate was based on their electricity usage.”
That’s because, while EVs are fuel efficient, they are not always practical. “The main problem is that they have to pay more to buy it, then sit around and wait 40 minutes when recharging it,” he said. “It’s great if you have a house and can get a high voltage hookup, but 40 per cent or more people live in apartment blocks.”
Nor should EVs be seen as some sort of panacea for dealing with climate change. “Even if everyone switched, it would solve very little of the problem regarding CO2 emissions,” Lomborg said. “The International Energy Agency (IEA) says EVs effectiveness depend on the power source as to whether they reduce emissions. In Norway (with hydroelectricity), they generate 24 per cent fewer emissions than a gasoline car, but in China they contribute more emissions because they run on coal power.”
The head of the IEA, Fatih Birol, famously said, “If you think you can save the climate with electric cars, you’re completely wrong.” China is the world’s biggest EV manufacturer — an industrial strategy designed to reduce its dependency on gasoline made from foreign oil. But around 60 per cent of its power is generated by burning dirty coal, which means that EVs driven in China are “coal” cars that contribute to the emissions problem more than gasoline cars.
Besides that, many countries suffer from brownouts or power disruptions, making EVs untenable. Norway’s power comes solely from hydroelectricity, but the country is wealthy mostly because of its fossil fuel exports.
“Subsidies to make EVs cheaper are not going to cut all that much CO2, according to the IEA,” Lomborg said. “This uses tons of financial resources to allow rich people to virtue signal: 75 per cent of all subsidiaries to green energy are given to the richest quarter of all people for EVs and solar panels.”
Lomborg cited numerous ways in which EVs lead to more pollution. “A U.S. study looked at what happens when you put extra one million EVs, hybrids, gasoline or biofuel cars. It turns out you get more air pollution from electric cars, because they use more coal-fired power. Biofuel cars generate a lot more air pollution, but the best thing you can do is build hybrids. They use less gasoline and re-use the power generated by its small battery to emit less. It’s smart and cheap and good for your wallet,” he said.
“Another belief is that all green products are good, but batteries are mostly made in China with lots of coal power generating lots of emissions there … and materials like lithium used in EV batteries are mined by young children mostly in the Republic of Congo.”
Despite the facts, some countries are planning to ban the internal combustion engine within the next couple decades. Canada’s Liberal government is looking to implement the ban by 2035. Instead of following the herd and paying excessive amounts to give wealthy people access to subsidized EVs that won’t have much impact on climate change, Canada should re-examine the facts and look to implement policies that have the largest impact on the environment, at the lowest-possible cost to taxpayers.
Financial Post
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