Electric vehicles need fossil fuels to run

By Lethbridge Herald on December 3, 2022.

Editor: 

 Electric cars are wonderful machines, but are they going to save the planet as some claim? If we look at all the material required to build them such as lithium, cobalt, copper, etc., that all has to be mined, and at what cost to the environment?

 And not only that, what about all the other components? Think tires, plastics, battery cases, etc., all partly made with fossil fuel. How long will those batteries last? What is the replacement cost? 

And what is the distance a fully e-car can travel? Some claim up to 600 kilometres. How do they test these cars for distance? Probably on a day when it is not too hot or too cold, no wind and on smooth roads. 

And where does all the electricity come from? Certainly not from those ugly bird-killing wind turbines and just as ugly solar panels. 

 That is one of the reasons why our power bills went sky high. Turbines and solar panels are all subsidized and subsidization always comes back to haunt the taxpayer. 

So we have to build more generating plants. Powered by what? Coal, natural gas, oil? So are the e-cars going to save the planet? 

I think at the end of the day, the e-car will leave just as large a carbon footprint as the internal combustion engine. So without fossil fuel, not one e-car would be built, nor a wind turbine, nor a solar panel.

 Phase out fossil fuel? Certainly not for a long time to come. 

George Van Bostelen 

Coaldale