Regular readers of mine tolerate a certain amount of counter-cultural rhetoric. But given the typically climate-forward bent of this newsletter, perhaps the title of this edition caught you a bit off guard. Here’s where I’m coming from.
Way back in the waning days of COVID in early 2022 I posed the question, “Are EVs the answer?” While I received a grand total of zero responses, the upshot of that piece was that electric vehicles aren’t going to save the planet.
I still feel that way, but my opinion has been bolstered by some research in the meantime.
A common trope from the climate denier community is that EVs are more environmentally damaging than ICE vehicles. Of course this justifies their vehicular choice of apocalypse-ready trucks with which they can “coal roll” every Prius they pass. But for once, the foil hat crowd is actually on to something, childish application of diesel soot notwithstanding.
This report from a non-profit research org puts it in numbers: GreenerCars 2023: Efficiency and Weight—Not Just Electric vs. Gas—Shape Environmental Impact | ACEEE Their conclusion is that larger / heavier EVs have a worse lifecycle impact than smaller/lighter ICE vehicles when you take into account the manufacturing and charging/fueling over time. If you’re like me and don’t trust anything you read online, the group’s methodology is linked here.
My takeaway is that the auto industry has finally hopped on board EV-mania after getting their grilles smacked by the upstart “T” company. Sadly they appear to be feeding Americans’ super-sized appetites for bigger everything, including massive vehicles. It’s simple physics that it takes more energy to move a greater mass.
So until we develop a magic source that can create gigawatts of electricity from thin air, that power has to be stored in batteries that require significant mining and processing to make them. And while the electrical grid charging those batteries will continue to get cleaner, the watts to fill ‘er up generally aren’t emissions-free.
Unfortunately even highly educated and environmentally oriented folks parking EVs in their garages can miss this point. For example, I was recently sailing with a friend of mine who was lamenting the warmer winters in the Rockies where he enjoyed skiing. He’d made the connection between less snow and climate change. But when I asked him what he was doing about it, his answer was: buying an EV.
Keep in mind this individual doesn’t regularly commute by auto. His main mode of transportation is flying between his two homes. According to my friend, his 7,000 lb SUV with a battery larger than two Chevy Bolts is saving the planet. Huh?
All signs point to humanity’s urgent need to decarbonize pretty much everything if we hope to maintain a livable climate here on earth. And transportation accounts for over a third of CO2 emissions in the US. But let’s start with the higher mileage fleets and regular commuters where replacing ICE-miles with watt-hours will have the largest impact. As a country, we need to shift incentives away from massive pavement-pounding and pedestrian-flattening monster trucks and SUVs to encourage different forms of mobility entirely. Electric vehicles are not the only solution.
Incredibly Ordinary 
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