OPINION:
A complete transition to electric vehicles is not going to happen.
That admission came last week from the Biden administration official in charge of handing out subsidies to the alternative energy industrial complex that benefits from the White House’s EV mandate.
Jigar Shah, chief of the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office, was responding to someone on X who naively believed the EV push is actually about changing the automotive fleet from one powered by gasoline to one powered by electricity. The true goal is reshaping society.
“Replacing all of the vehicles in the world with EVs is not sustainable,” Mr. Shah explained.
He continued: “We need to invest in micro mobility, new ownership models, better urban planning models and other improvements. We need to improve on the current 4-6% utilization rate of our current car fleet.”
Breaking down the statements, the goal of forcing the sale of expensive electric cars is the elimination of the personal mobility made possible by gasoline-powered automobiles in favor of schemes more favorable to central planning. “Micro mobility” refers to the widespread use of scooters in an urban environment.
This makes no sense as a form of transportation if headed to the supermarket to support a family, if the weather is bad, or if you’re an older adult or disabled.
“Utilization rate” refers to how much time a car is being driven, as opposed to sitting parked and unused. The only way for cars to be used around the clock is if they are owned in common, perhaps by a large corporation that allocates when and where they can be driven.
It’s a clever way of saying people shouldn’t own their own cars anymore, and the overall number of cars of any kind would be reduced through “new ownership models.” Only the rich and well-connected would be able to own their own automobile.
The left has always been hostile to personal mobility, in large measure because it enables people to roam freely about the countryside and live pretty much wherever they choose. It is no accident that Mr. Shah specifically notes that he wants “better urban planning models.”
By that, he means a central committee needs to control where you live, the size of your house and more.
In another tweet, he clarified: “Utilities also admit that the only way for them to accommodate EV load is to deploy managed charging — something they have piloted for decades.” In other words, Big Brother will also be setting your thermostat.
Mr. Shah knows there are not enough mines on the planet to produce the trillions of pounds of minerals that would be necessary to have enough electric vehicles for everyone who wants a car, particularly considering hundreds of millions of people on this planet are going to join the middle class in the next decade or so. They are going to want automobiles as well.
The good news is that some people are fighting back. Our friends at the American Energy Alliance are constructing the Save Our Cars Coalition, which is guided by a clear understanding of what the administration is up to.
Personal ownership of the automobile liberated millions of Americans to live, work and travel where and when they pleased.
That’s a freedom worth defending.
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