Columnist: Plug-in cars are the new ethanol-style boondoggle
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The amount of money that the U.S. federal government poured into corn ethanol is legendary. Today, we're left with a floundering ethanol economy and a few happy corn farmers but not an abundance of the biofuel powering the nation's cars. A columnist for the Washington Examiner thinks that we're headed down a similar path with plug-in vehicles. This time, though, "the feds may foster addiction to a fuel concentrated in a socialist-run South American country."
Those are the words of Timothy Carney, who writes that the government's rush to EVs is troubling because all those electric cars will need a bunch of lithium - some of which might come from Bolivia - to move them (Editorially, the controversial Examiner is right-learning, so the scary s-word in Carney's piece shouldn't be too surprising). Carney names some of the lithium lobbyists who worked hard in D.C. to promote plug-in vehicles to Congress. He writes that, "If the electric car lobby succeeds, brace for another harsh lesson in unintended consequences."
Carney also brings up the long tailpipe. While Carney is right that the GAO did warn against all of the coal that could be used to power the EVs of the future, he forgot to mention the GAO's finding that "Research we reviewed indicated that plug-ins could shift air pollutant emissions away from population centers even if there was no change in the fuel used to generate electricity."
Gallery: GEMs Peapod
[Source: Washington Examiner]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
James 3:52PM (7/01/2009)
Unfortunately, the right's only solution is more drilling, more coal and more nuclear plants (but mostly drilling and "clean coal). I live in Ohio and the coal companies, along with the energy companies like AEP have launched a massive campaign under the guise of many green-sounding organizations and websites (all run by PR companies I have discovered after my emails were returned, not from energy companies, but from PR companies).
So whine all you want about leftist governments and their lithium, but I'll happily go down that road instead of continuing to deepen the treads on the pothole-filled road we've been plodding down for the past century and a half with the energy giants.
We have a choice right now...truly clean energy or digging our kids a hole so deep they will never recover. I choose the former.
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Bip-D-Bo 3:23PM (7/01/2009)
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."
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polo 3:36PM (7/01/2009)
This article makes the bizarre claim that we will somehow become dependent on Bolivia for lithium like we are now on South America for oil - trading dependence for one foreign source to another. This is beyond wrong and idiotic.
Lithium batteries are not an energy producer, they store energy derived from other energy sources, and allow it to be used remotely (like a gas tank). If we switched to batteries we would be trading dependence on foreign fuel (oil) for domestic fuel (which includes nuclear, coal, wind, solar, and natural gas). Bolvia would act no more as a cartel than China (our #1 manufacturer). Anyone see China jacking up the prices of exported goods because thats where most of our production is?? If that ever happened we'd know because Walmart would go out of business.
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polo 3:38PM (7/01/2009)
typo. Meant "the Middle East" not "South America".
CaramelZappa 3:47PM (7/01/2009)
Like Polo said, the batteries are basically an expensive gas tank, the energy source would still be local. Plus, once we get enough lithium battery packs over here, they will eventually need replacing, which is fine because they're recyclable, which we can also do here. Oil is going to run out sometime, and when it does we need to switch to something else. Our dependence on oil has caused problem after problem, so it only makes sense to choose the fuel source that gives us the most independence.
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Anonymouse 4:03PM (7/01/2009)
Why on Earth does everyone keep forgetting the Kings Valley, Nevada lithium mine being developed by Western Lithium Corporation?
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Chris M 4:20PM (7/01/2009)
Well, some people don't know anything about it and think the only source of lithium is Bolivia. Bolivia does have the richest source, but lithium is far too common, there is hardly any nation that couldn't tap sources of lithium if they needed to.
Chris M 4:16PM (7/01/2009)
There are several reasons for this extremist conservative attempt to supress plug-in vehicles:
1. A resistance to change. EVs and PHEVs represent a dramatic change, and some reactionary conservatives don't like change of any sort, they prefer the status quo. When confronted with the threat of global warming they refuse to accept the evidence as it would mean making changes. When confronted with oil funded terrorism and "peak oil", they don't want to change their gas guzzling ways, so they mindlessly chant "drill baby drill".
2. The effort is being lead and promoted mainly by "liberals", so in a knee-jerk reflex they feel they must oppose it. The fact that some economic benefit might go to a "socialist led" foreign country hardens their opposition. Somehow, they are less upset over dollars going to foreign countries, because most of those oil exporting nations have wealthy "conservative" governments.
3. Some of their rich and powerful friends oppose plug-ins, mainly oil companies, so they feel they must oppose it, too.
4. They don't want to conserve, as they equate that with "doing without" and being poor. Ironically, they are the conservatives who don't conserve!
I must point out that is the extremist wing of conservatism, more sensable conservatives realize that change is sometimes necessary, not all liberals are evil, some liberal ideas are good and agreeable, cutting oil imports is good for our country, and conserving valuable resources can be a good thing.
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Serge 4:51PM (7/01/2009)
"not all liberals are evil, some liberal ideas are good and agreeable, cutting oil imports is good for our country, and conserving valuable resources can be a good thing."
Oh the horror ...
Noz 2:56AM (7/02/2009)
Take your own advise ChrisM...your resistance to change beyond your narrow view is extremism at its worst.
It's ironic reading your post...it's actually freaking hilarious due to all the hypocrisy in it.
Chris M 3:55AM (7/02/2009)
Noz, what exactly do you disagree with in my post? I thought it was reasonable, but apparently you disagree.
What hypocrisy? I'm for any change that improves the situation and is practical, and plug-ins do just that. Disagreeing with you about H2 fuels is not, in itself, hypocrisy, that's a mere difference of opinion, Hypocrisy would be saying one thing and doing another. The analogy here would be if I were adamantly opposed to anyone buying H2 vehicles but then went and bought one anyway - but that obviously didn't happen. So, again I ask, "What hypocrisy?"
SumideXE 4:25PM (7/01/2009)
Why does everybody keep forgetting that lithium is recycleable?
Since coal burning is a problem why hasn't it been addressed in the first place?
How does driving an electric car make the problem worse?
the 'long tailpipe' argument would have some validity if solar and wind power weren't so viable now.
Dont' even get me started on how much carbon is produced simply drilling for oil and refining it. See also: oil sands, offshore drilling, etc.
I'm gonna sound like a douchebag for a moment here but.. whatever the right has to say about any of this has ALWAYS been FUD-filled, behind the times, and more about politics and business than environment and everytime they rattle off about something like this they just make asses of themselves.
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Alan 4:36PM (7/01/2009)
Let's all go back to horse drawn cars shall we? The logic of these people is amazing, new technology not perfect means the current technology *is* perfect. Wrong.
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Serge 4:56PM (7/01/2009)
Calling lithium "fuel" is beyond dumb. Shows you how informed some "journalists" are.
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Lou Grinzo 5:13PM (7/01/2009)
One other detail about electrifying transportation: Whether we did that or not, we would have no choice but to make our electricity generation much cleaner. (Pick your own combination of technologies to get there.) Climate chaos is forcing us to make large enough cuts that all sectors--electricity, transportation, residential, commercial, industrial--will have to make emissions cuts.
Therefore, the more we electrify transportation now (whether that's cars or light rail), the more we'll gain eventually when we clean up the generation.
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a46aflee 5:26PM (7/01/2009)
Carney's an oil-loving idjit.
I'll be driving my Ethanol-powered Impala a long time after his gas-burner is set aside for lack of affordable fuel.
A study by Ia State Univ, last year, estimated that we saved approx. $50 Billion by having ethanol available in the marketplace. My Kind of "boondoggle."
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fnc 6:37PM (7/01/2009)
Lithium can be extracted from seawater.
Lithium is already a waste stream from some mining processes.
The lithium in batteries can be recycled.
Does his argument have any legs left to stand on?
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Curt Barger 7:12PM (7/01/2009)
I've lived in DC for 3 decades and believe myself to be politically aware; my first thought was "We have a newspaper in DC called the Examiner?"
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Snoopy 8:27PM (7/01/2009)
A lot of good points have already been made about this topic, especially interesting ones I had no clue about like the seawater and waste stream things (thanks fnc).
The answer I had when a friend's father asked me about that worry was that this is a very different situation. Lithium, unlike oil, would not be a constant supply need, regardless of the fact that it will be needed to produce batteries. Since we aren't/wouldn't be fueling our vehicles with them, we don't have the same kind of stranglehold to worry about.
All of the other reasons mentioned just make this issue even less of a concern.
Also unlike oil, we can produce our own energy for EVs (regardless of the material the batteries/ultra-capacitors/battery-ultra-capacitor combinations are coming from). Solar, wind, hydro, weird crank contraptions - the possibilities for energy production from clean sources (whether powerful and efficient or weak and weird) are quite abundant.
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Rahul 2:29AM (7/02/2009)
Ethanol is a good alternative to fossil fuel. It is the fuel of the future generation. We see carmakers giving a thought to a source for
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