The March 21 commentary published on chronline.com concerning the high price of electric vehicles (EVs) ignored the elephant in the room, as have most of the “greenies” pushing for EVs.
The effect of a large population of EVs will put a serious strain on the power grid of the U.S. It’s been known for many decades that our power grid is fragile, and the environmentalists’ push to kill coal-powered electricity and nuclear energy hasn’t helped at all. Now, the Biden Administration is pushing for EVs in our future.
As the commentary pointed out, the cost of buying an EV is outrageous. A high-end Tesla costs $125,000 or more, and even entry-level EVs run over $50,000. Frankly, I don’t know how anyone can afford a new car these days. Of course, the government has some incentives already for the purchase of EVs, and as the sales increase so will the incentives.
So, now you own an EV. Congratulations! Of course, the added cost of installing the proper electrical outlet in your garage was a bit much, but what the heck. No more gas! You can laugh at those poor suckers lining up at the pump to pay $4 or $5 per gallon for that stuff. And, 300 miles is plenty of range for most of the traveling I do. If I have to go farther I’ll use one of the many chargers along the interstate. Of course, that’s adding a day or two to our vacation to Disneyland, but we don’t have to buy gas.
So now you get home after a long day at work and plug in the car, as have the 300 other people in your neighborhood. Why are the lights dimming? Oh no! just blew a circuit breaker and the lights went out. Where’s that flashlight, anyway? Ah! There it is. But, hey, the circuit breaker isn’t blown. It’s fine. Why are the lights out? It couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the thousands of EVs that are plugged into the power grid to recharge for tomorrow, could it? And why has my electric bill quadrupled this year?
The effect on our lives will be great. And this part of the equation doesn’t even speak to the environmental damage caused by the mining of the lithium and nickel that go into the batteries of the lovely new EVs and the tens of thousands of others already out there, as well as the massive lithium battery packs coming out for power storage. One article I found claimed that in order to meet President Biden’s goal he set last year would require 100 times more lithium than the U.S. possesses. And, of course, the environmentalists are protesting the new mines being opened, such as the Thacker Pass mine in north Nevada.
I believe we would be much better off pursuing biodiesel and hydrogen fuel than putting this heavy load on our power grid and our wallets.
Bruce Peterson
Centralia
