OPINION:
I’ve got nothing against electric cars, per se.
Tesla made Elon Musk so rich that he took over Twitter. Mr. Musk promptly exposed how radical leftists in charge of social media suppress conservative viewpoints and censor key information to skew elections. Then he renamed it X.
This was a great victory for freedom of speech and more proof that God sometimes works in strange ways.
But I’m not buying an electric car. That will happen only when our would-be green masters put gasoline-powered cars totally out of reach.
This won’t happen as quickly as the climate extremists had hoped. It seems that fossil fuels, one of America’s great strengths, will be around longer than anyone thought just a couple of years ago.
The signs abound. Billion-dollar wind farm contracts are being canceled. Oil companies are beefing up for more production even as the Biden administration keeps blocking off government land that could produce energy.
The Detroit Three are losing money on every electric vehicle they make. EVs are piling up on dealers’ lots. Last Tuesday, 4,000 dealers sent a letter to President Biden asking him to back off his goal of converting almost two-thirds of new car sales to electric by 2032 — a mere nine years from now.
Part of the problem is the slim market. Virtue-seeking liberals burnishing their green credentials have already bought their EVs. Speaking of signaling, how virtuous is it to buy into a product almost entirely dependent on a supply chain of rare earth minerals produced by child labor and controlled by China?
OK, I own an iPhone. Nobody’s perfect.
There’s more.
A new Consumer Reports survey found that EVs are far less reliable on average than gas-powered vehicles. From 2021 to 2023, owners reported 80% more problems than for combustion-engine vehicles.
Most EVs can go only 200 to 300 miles without time-consuming charging. Plus, a Car and Driver magazine study found that EVs got 12.5% less distance per charge on average than the manufacturers claim.
For urbanites who drive only a few miles, electric cars make much more sense than they do for suburban and rural residents or for families who like to take road trips. (“Dad, do we have to plug in again? When are we going to get there?”)
Another reason that I won’t be buying an EV soon is that I resent that leftists who control our government are shoving them down our throats. It’s part of their war on America’s energy sector and thus on our strength and independence.
Over time, the market and science will yield more energy and vehicle options and fossil fuels may eventually be phased out. But forcing the issue via government threats is causing hardship and economic chaos.
President Biden’s war on fossil fuels is the main reason behind 40-year-high inflation, along with trillions of dollars of federal spending. When you jack up the price of gasoline, everything soars.
Farmers are spending a fortune on fertilizer made with fossil fuels. They pass on the costs to food companies, which pass them on to consumers.
I was amused by a recent front-page headline in the Democratic Party’s newsletter, The Washington Post.
It said: “Inflation is down, but gripes still going viral: Democrats fear that social media exaggerates economic issues.”
Yes, they’d better fear this. The rate is down, but not the already high prices, which keep rising. We’re not imagining it. A fast-food meal costs more than double what we paid only 2½ years ago.
Heating homes and offices yields more sticker shock. Natural gas bills are 27% higher than last year. Heating oil is up 27% and propane is up 5%, with more increases on the way, according to the Energy Information Administration.
In the health care sector, even leftist Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts Democrat, has conceded that the Affordable Care Act has caused industry consolidation instead of competition and higher prices for medical procedures and prescriptions.
When the government meddles in markets, bad things happen.
When the government refuses to enforce laws, more bad things happen.
Four million to 8 million aliens have crossed the border illegally since Mr. Biden took office, overwhelming social services and police departments in many cities.
The human carnage of those attracted by his no-enforcement welcome mat is incalculable. Each year, it includes hundreds of deaths, the rape of girls and women, and the importation of deadly drugs such as fentanyl that kill nearly 100,000 Americans.
At some point, wouldn’t you think that people would figure this out and stop voting for the socialists who are wrecking America?
But cognitive dissonance runs deep. Here’s a final paragraph from a letter to the editor of the Post. Hailing from Montgomery County, Maryland, the writer says: “Mr. Biden has shown himself to be mentally sharp and a strong leader who has pulled this country out of a death spiral after the Trump presidency. Stop pushing the age issue.”
Yes. We’re living in an age in which many people are certifiably insane, or at least in denial.
If only they didn’t vote.
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
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December 04, 2023 at 03:07AM
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