Column on electric vehicles filled with disinformation
By Lethbridge Herald on June 26, 2024.
Editor:
I was disappointed to see the opinion piece promoting EV disinformation from Gwyn Morgan in your newspaper the other day and wanted to point out the fallacies advanced in his article.
Gwyn stated EVs are not environmentally beneficial, a falsehood, as research by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) will attest. He also claimed there is a shortage of critical minerals for batteries, another falsehood, highlighting his lack of knowledge on current battery technologies. He claimed mining can’t be done without human rights abuses and that people will not want electric vehicles. Why would they want engines that are more efficient, simpler, cleaner and more powerful?
His claim that EV drivers pay nothing in taxes is, of course, false. The idea that governments will not be able to maintain roads because they won’t be able to think of any way to replace the gasoline tax is laughable, as demonstrated by the Alberta government that just instituted the equivalent of a 33% fuel tax on my EV.
Mr. Morgan cites a study by the widely discredited Frazer Institute saying that Canada would have to build 13 new large gas plants to power EVs. Charging an EV is like cooking on your stove or doing a load in your dryer, so is he also calling for an end to appliance sales? Why anyone would consider building expensive gas plants, when the cheapest method of producing electricity is renewable energy, is questionable. The IEA reports that European customers saved 100 billion euros due to renewable energy additions vs. fossil fuel alternatives in 2021-2023. Evergreen Action reports that in meeting rising electricity demand, gas plants are the most expensive option, will increase pollution and costs for customers, and are “disproportionately vulnerable to failure.”
A clue is that gas companies can pass on 100 per cent of the cost of building a gas plant to consumers.
Is switching to electric vehicles easy? No. Is growing our electricity grid to meet the rising demand by manufacturers, increasing electrification of vehicles, buildings, and industrial processes, a growing technology sector, and the energy use needed to power data centres for things like artificial intelligence easy? No. Is it impossible or unrealistic? Only if naysayers like Mr. Morgan succeed in keeping the gas lamps on.
Tom Moffatt
Lethbridge
10-9
What I find enjoyable in both narratives is the reality of the changeover is not present in either. I always chuckle when people use Europe as an example and then say “if they can do it, we can”. Most have not even seen any part of Europe to understand that you can drive across 3 countries in a day!
I also love the comparator of “Conglomerates” and how the Big Bad Oil Companies will be smite into the dust of history” and forgetting that the Electrical Conglomerates will control every facet of your daily life after the big bad oil guys are gone!
Oil companies only dreamt of having the power and control that the “Greens” are bestowing on their best buddies (electricity)! A price hike at the meter will be a hit on your pocket book like you have never seen before. As for Infrastructure and continued expansion of the Grid, it will be EXACTLY the same as the downloading of a Gas plant by Big Oil.
As for shortages in critical minerals I agree with Mr Morgan. There is a difference between critical shortages because of Geographical location and critical shortages because there is not enough. If the majority of minerals are located in China, which they are, then to preserve the supply chain properly, you would have to suggest their is critical shortage. For Mr Moffat to side step the issue shows the bias and lack of understanding that he accuses Morgan!
I find those on one side or the other of this discussion “obsessive”, they tend to subdue information that makes their side look bad. Mr Moffat does the same. I would highly suggest Mr Moffat reads as much as he can about a place called Batou Mongolia. He will find the flow of info abruptly stopped when westerners found that human deformities are a “norm” from the pollution of Rare Earth Metals. This is not an isolated Mining facility as they are everywhere in China/Mongolia and no foreign press is allowed in to see what is happening. However, it makes the Oil Sands look like a Disney Park. So Mr Moffats Understanding of pollution is also limited to what he can see and what his favorite group quotes.
Mr Moffat also avoids the costs to set up the infrastructure that saved the EU Clients $100billion Euros. He also avoids mentioning that Germany, an early adopter is now replacing the majority of windmills because they are worn out. They were burying the Fiberglass Blades in a huge open pit before the media got ahold of that info. No one quotes the German Government who now admit they have to spend $1Trillion Euros to bring their grid up to a standard where it will not collapse. Now of these costs are added into the IEA report because its a bias one sided snap shot. Unless of course the money for the existing infrastructure was free and was not paid for by taxpayers.
The cheapest energy is renewable energy myth- Renewable is the cheapest but it is also the most UNRELIABLE, it is not a Stable Stationary Energy that builds the backbone of a Grid. So siting one benefit, without discussing its downside, just makes me think Moffat is no more enlightened then he accuses Morgan!
We all discuss EVs as if it can be done. It can’t! Why? Because not one among us, will take worst case and discuss it. Leave Halifax, going to Vancouver, middle of winter! The infrastructure to do that is 30-50 years away and requires huge leaps in non existing technology. Yet, people like Moffat assume proceeding with no plan is acceptable, it isn’t. So do you spend $40k-$70K on a car to then hog a charger for 24 hours at Henderson on a -40 day because running your heater makes it an endless charge and pretend it didn’t happen?
The reason I enjoy these narratives is because no one lives in the real world, or really wants to discuss the technology limits or the costs associated in getting where we want to go.
If Henry Ford and the Gov decided in the day that shooting all the horses would be a great idea and get broader support for Gas engines, we would never have survived! So to listen to Greenies trying to shoot Big Oil becomes as laughable as shooting all the horses and makes about the same sense!
Markets pick winners. Governments pick what is left, i.e.losers
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/06/electric-regret-almost-half-of-australian-and-us-ev-owners-want-to-go-back-to-a-combustion-engine-and-many-in-the-uk-already-have/
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-4-21-tracking-the-demise-of-the-us-green-energy-transition
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2024-6-25-this-energy-transition-thing-really-is-not-happening
100% agree Dennis. The writer won’t look past his echo chamber. The Fraser Institute discredited by whom? The NDP and this former candidate???? These articles should keep him busy while at Henderson charging his car.
Markets also pick losers. I can name several Canadian companies that went under without giving the question much thought – Sears Canada, Eatons and Olympia and York spring immediately to mind. I can also think of several grocery chains that have bit the dust – A&P Stores, Steinberg’s and Knob Hill Farms are three such examples.
This list could go on for some time, but let’s not forget Donald Trump’s various businesses that markets turned on.
Can you and your pal buckwheat make yourselves look any dumber than you already have? Two of the dumbest people on the planet and not smart enough to look at the facts, right ? Have you talked to any oil executives who know Global Warming is a serious problem and something has got to be and why are you and your Reform Party fools trying to stop them from doing something about ?
It isn’t hard to understand why the American oilmen working in Alberta that I knew years ago called Albertans the dumbest people on the planet for allowing Ralph Klein to treat them like morons and allowed the rich to steal their oil wealth, they are still doing it and these fools aren’t smart enough to understand. As a lawyer friend would “ I wonder what it’s like to be that stupid “.
Like many Albertans who were so stupid they thought Rachael Notley could fix in only 4years the mess that these Reformers created in 25 that’s how dumb they are.
While they are still developing this technology concerning electricity these fools think it should be done overnight and while they whine about the cold effects on it Norwegians are using electric snowmobiles and we see some Canadians using electric ice augers for ice fishing. Frankly I have no intention of switching to an electric vehicle until all the kinks are worked out and doubt I will live that long, but where’s the harm in trying to do something to protect our children’s future and why should we allow these Reformers and their ignorant pals to continue to allow it to happen without trying to do something about it.
So far like Pierre Poilievre none have offered any intelligent solution to any problem he has been faced with, it’s all about blaming it on someone else.
It must be interesting to live inside your head Fedup. You have all these imaginary meetings with world leaders who seek your console on a regular basis and the only person listening is you lol
“Germany, an early adopter is now replacing the majority of windmills because they are worn out. They were burying the Fiberglass Blades in a huge open pit “
While it is true that decommissioned wind turbine blades are often thrown away in landfills, fiberglass from them is currently being recycled into 3D printing feeding stock among other things like building materials.
The rest of your rant is so riddled with selective and wild scenarios, it’s not worth it. Keep screaming at the sky.
I find that is the easiest way to avoid facts, just don’t read them lol
Not sure if an admission of willful ignorance is what you had in mind, but this comment explains a great deal.
some fair considerations raised, dennis. rare earth metals will line some pockets considerably, and their mining/waste/disposal will make people and the planet all the sicker. not to say we do not need clean energy, but, rather, to note that we are not thinking deeply enough about the adverse impacts of the toxic stuff so much our stuff spills about the planet.
bottom line: we had best move to a far more needs based and less wants fulfillment lifestyle. there is currently not one sustainably clean energy option that will save us from our self indulgences.
lots of negs – ok, then, so-called rare earth metals hardly cause us any serious environmental issues, good for the landscape and water and all…maybe add them to our multivitamins for an even more robust constitution. insofar as our wants driven economy and lifestyles preferences, i guess the majority knows best there, too. a look at the history of humans should tell us just how on the mark we ever are.
For those of us who have spent time in Europe why is it so hard for Albertans to accept this change? The fact is they weren’t smart enough to prepare for it and accept it like Europeans have done. Even B.C. Is miles a head of Alberta, aren’t they?
Can anyone be more misinformed than someone who lives 20-50 years in the past ?
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/05/german-solar-industry-collapsing-unable-to-make-solar-panels-from-solar-power/
So while the people in Germany pointed out to me that they were well on the way to being emission free by 2045 the Russians made it impossible for them to do so by cutting off their Natural Gas supply to get even with them for supporting the Ukrainians, but these Reform Party lovers haven’t figured it out yet and would rather believe the lies they are fed, and ignore the facts. Maybe they need to go to Germany and learn the truth, don’t you think?
Have you forgotten how our oil industry, during the oil industry crash of 2014 was paying unemployment oil workers to make solar panels? They weren’t dumb enough to try to make them using other solar panels were they?
So let me get this straight Fedup, you recognize the need for Germany’s NG to get to emission free. NG of course is a gas emitter. Yet you cannot recognize the need for Oil for AB to get to neutrality? Have you talked to any world leaders in your head today?
Germany is the biggest and the fastest-growing market for rooftop solar PV in Europe. The country also has one of the world’s most developed photovoltaic markets – with around 80.7 GWp cumulated capacity. The German government has set PV installation targets of 215 GWp by 2030 and 400 GWp by 2040 respectively.
Strangely, the expansion of rooftop PV also coincides with policy that allows homeowners to profit from their production. Whereas the dominance of Electrical Companies dictate policy in AB. They refuse to ALLOW you to produce more than you consume.
So the Greenies seem to want to go after consumers continually for their bad habits, yet, because there is NO PLAN, the attack is always the wrong group
Catch up
https://joannenova.com.au/2024/05/german-solar-industry-collapsing-unable-to-make-solar-panels-from-solar-power/
You two biased clowns deserve each other.
You need to catch up too
Joanne Nova (real name Joanne Codling) has been described as “one of Australia’s more prominent ‘climate change sceptics’.” She believes that carbon may have “little effect” on the atmosphere.
Can’t even use her real name. Why you’d latch on to this flake doesn’t surprise. Oooo, she’s got a degree in microbiology. Probably a worm in her brain.
might we get honest, actuarial reports as to the environmental impacts of each of the alternative energy options relative to current fossil fuel? how much energy is used to create each of the alternatives, how much of products used by alternatives results in toxic waste relative to fossil waste. simply put: what is the net environmental impact of each energy source all the way through, and not just in terms of carbon? i suspect we may be getting fooled, as usual, by those that always reap the financial windfalls. just like our so-called democracy, seems we are ever mesmerised by what amounts most to smoke and mirrors.
Agree Biff. Also an accounting of carbon tax collected to date and the corresponding results of parts per million, plus or minus. Be nice to see the facts.
lol you had a quick net neg votedown count…i am piling them up. meanwhile, those neggers have nil to bring to the discussion, except their simple-minded ignorance.
indeed, an honest accounting of carbon tax collected, from where it has come, and how that saves us from our indulgences would be a fair thing to see.
4 negs, not one sharing of thought. shucks, who wants honest details if they would frazzle one’s cocoon spun of propaganda. now, it is possible that the mining, manufacture, and dumping of toxic metals and chemicals turns into fresh air, clean water, and fertile and rich soil…but maybe we could at least have some proven basis for that?
You’re like someone who babbles just to hear his own voice,
Have another negative vote.
you are adept at demonstrating ignorance. perhaps you can use this forum as a means of growth, but you will need to cast aside your massive ego.
indeed, rather than reply to what i and very many see as pressing issues, you shrug off as paranoia that which is merely contrary to your narrative in another thread, and do so without any thoughtful sharing. lumpy as curdled milk and more foolish than an impetuous infant.
Again, you babble away just to have it rattle around in your head. Maybe get a roll of gaffer tape.
lots ‘0 negs….all right, then, why not go deep and move forward instead without any true consideration for outcomes stemming from so-called “clean” and “green” energy approaches. hard to believe people are not willing to give up any measure of wants toward salvaging our planet.
Hey biff. If some are so casual as to not care about where the carbon tax goes that the do not need an accounting maybe they can spare you and me some spare change 😄