I look at this picture (an electric car charging station) and all I see is almost $19,000.00 down the drain that the City Grand Rapids has spent to appease progressives and a few greenie weenies. The City has five of these stations and I’m thinking I would rather have had some pot holes fixed with that $100K than these charging stations. On top of that, the City is paying for these costs, in part, by raising the rates on adjacent meters by $.50 cents an hour. To make it more ridiculous, these things are barely used.
I am all for the natural movement, I am for conserving our surroundings. I am for clean water, clean air, local organic farms and produce and environmental responsibility. I am NOT for these electric vehicles. In this case we have been sold a bill of goods. We are marketed to, by pulling on the strings of our consciousness and pressuring us into believing that these electric vehicles are somehow better for the environment and more cost effective than their gasoline counterparts.
They are not. In fact their impact on the environment is net negative. In other words they are really bad for the environment and they cost more per mile to operate, not less.
Don’t believe me? Let’s just look at some basic numbers:
It costs $.14 to produce each KW of electricity (on average). This Chevy Volt has a 17.1 KW battery and has a range of 53 miles on that charge (That’s Chevrolet’s claim but it’s been argued to be lower than that) It takes 3KW of energy to go one mile. That’s a cost of $.42 cents per mile (raw costs of energy with the producers profit margin left intact)
A gallon of gasoline costs ,on average, $1.29 to produce (with refineries profit left intact)
Let’s say a car gets 25 MPG hwy on average. That’s a (raw) cost of $.32 cents a mile. So, for every 100 miles driven we have a raw net energy loss of - $10.00 See how that could add up?
The battery itself is another issue that I would count as a net negative to the product and our environment. Never mind the ginormous production cost associated with each battery; The EPA has linked the use of extremely powerful solvents in the creation of lithium electrolytes and cathodes to everything from cancer to neurological problems. Specifically, the cobalt used in the creation of the most energy dense lithium-ion batteries is poisonous and extremely carcinogenic. Pulmonary, neurological, and respiratory problems have all been connected to cobalt exposure.
Being behind a diesel rig doesn’t always smell the greatest, but I’d rather breathe that in than take in a helping of cobalt.
In our part of the world the use of the electric has another net negative impact to the environment, in other words it’s worse for the environment than an efficient gas powered car, every day of the week and twice on Sunday.
We have to ask ourselves where the electricity that is pumping out of this charger comes from.
There’s a good chance (as in our case) that it comes from coal!
Coal is considered to have a negative impact on the environment right? It burns dirty, black, smelly. Coal mining rapes the ground or bored from the guts of the Earth, kills the miners etc.etc., bad stuff. So each one of these precious gems uses not only a significant amount of energy to get from point A to point B, but net loss energy! Each mile of that journey fueled directly by burning coal. ;-)
SO my green friends, how do you like them apples? Thanks a lot for wrecking my environment and giving me cancer and killing miners and raping the planet! That sets me off almost as much as that smug look you have on your face, you know that one that says I care more than you do… I’m better than you, you troglodyte gas guzzler !, What I really cherish though is that perturbed and perplexed expression you get when you map out how you’re going to spend your 53 miles and get to and from one of the (5) five charging stations the City of Grand Rapids has to offer. That glassy eyed stare you get as you plan how you’re going to spend your 8 hour wait, while your car charges and fills with black coal! I mentioned coal was bad right?
James is a writer and a consultant from Grand Rapids, MI.
Jamesmaioho.com