The Democrats want to build 500,000 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations in the U.S. However, the total world reserves of lithium (a key component of EV batteries) will only provide batteries for a little over a billion EVs. That’s one billion EVs for the whole world – so we’d end up having maybe twenty charging stations for every EV!?
Most of the world’s lithium is in the “Lithium Triangle,” an area at the intersection of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina. There are extreme problems with accessing that rare-earth mineral from the lithium flats ~ which are very much like the salt flats of Nevada. There’s zero water (water is used to mine the ore). Moreover, that’s an extremely poor, undeveloped part of the world. Much of the terrain is home to indigenous peoples, to whom ripping up the Earth and destroying thousands of square miles of terra firma is seriously offensive. (You don’t have to be an indigenous person to feel that way, either.)
There are many other issues with EVs you never read about. EVs are so expensive (and limited in range) that 99% of them are owned by people who earn well in excess of $100,000 per year. Mining the many rare minerals for the batteries and processing them into the final package is so energy-intensive that by the time you drive off the lot with your new EV, you’ve used up 25% of the energy used in the entire lifetime of a gasoline vehicle.
And no, just because it’s an electric vehicle doesn’t mean it has zero effect on the environment. Granted, there’s no air pollution, which is good for urban areas. However. You use electricity created at a fossil fuel power plant, and that power plant can have a very significant carbon footprint. In fact, burning coal to produce power is dirtier and more environmentally destructive than burning gasoline.
And so: the environmental benefits of any EV are predicate on the fuel source used to generate your electricity. If your electricity comes from a coal power plant, your EV isn’t doing much good at all. If your electricity comes from a natural gas power plant, much better ~ better yet with nuclear, solar, wind, or geothermal.
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Excerpted from Going Green, available as an eBook at this list of eBook retailers online.