Ed Morrissey:
So what happens when we transfer tens of millions of personal vehicles from highly scalable and dynamically priced gasoline (and diesel) to the price- and source-regulated grid? We have seen the impact already in the larger economy when demand spikes while supply is restricted — costs will go through the roof and shortages ensue. Policymakers will feel pressure to keep cost caps in place, which means that the costs will come in both higher electrical rates to some extent, but much more in dramatic shortages of electricity overall. The cars will be both more expensive and less usable as a result, with all sorts of primary and secondary economic costs.
This could possibly be avoided with a parallel effort to ramp up production of all available energy sources, especially fossil fuels and nuclear power, which are scalable and reliable. No one — no one — has proposed adding any significant new sources of reliable and scalable energy to the grid as we transfer EVs from gasoline to electricity. We keep hearing about the promise of “green energy,” but we’ve been hearing those promises for decades. It’s not coming to pass in Texas, it’s certainly not coming to pass in California, and there won’t be enough solar panels and windmills in the world to supply America’s vehicle infrastructure, especially in reliable and scalable terms.
A barely competent Secretary of Transportation should already recognize all these issues. Buttigieg isn’t even barely competent, or apparently even aspires to that level. He’s there to repeat progressive mantras and play checkers in a complex, three-dimensional chess energy and transportation world.
# posted by Ranger @ 8:25 PM
