The Electric Car: Environmental Disaster

A few billions in taxpayer funds were thrown at the plug-in electric car industry yesterday. Yet, if we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have to consume less petroleum on our roads and reduce electric consumption. Plug-in electric cars take us in exactly the opposite direction.

A few billions in taxpayer funds were thrown at the plug-in electric car industry yesterday for, amongst other things, building manufacturing plants for actual vehicles.  The news was accompanied by the usual warm glow of great expected reductions in greenhouse gas emissions  that are sure to follow. The ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in one’s head may be good for mental health, but it is no basis for sound public policy.  If we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we have to consume less petroleum on our roads and reduce electric consumption. But plug-in electric cars take us in exactly the opposite direction. They increase electricity consumption and also promote higher energy consumption on the road by supplanting petroleum supply with electricity. Coal generates more than 80% of electric pollution. Its future is secure for decades because it provides half of our electricity.  Plug-in electric cars increase electricity demand at a time when we need to be removing dirty sources of electricity from the electric grid that is running at capacity. It is like going on a spending spree (using more electricity) when you want to reduce the hefty monthly interest payments on your maxed out credit cards (electric grid) because some day, the aunt (clean energy) is going to leave you an inheritance. Coal just got a brand new best friend in the plug-in car. Economics 101 gives us sensible policies to reduce greenhouse emissions without sacrificing living standards. Any form of gradual pollution-pricing done in a tax-neutral fashion by refunding pollution revenues back to the people will do its job. Our reliance on dirty fuels will go down, people will conserve by increasing efficiency, and the right energy mix will evolve on its own. It is one thing for the government to set such broad policies with long time horizons and then stay out of the way, but it is another to pick favorite solutions and shower subsidies on them.  Plug-in electric cars are just following the footsteps of corn ethanol  in feeding at the public trough without delivering a dime of environmental benefit. Despite the subsidies and regulatory gifts showered upon them, plug-in electric cars are not that efficient.  Laudatory articles about plug-in cars rarely mention any numbers.   In fact, plug-in cars are no better than my 15-year old Honda Civic or a Ford Focus when their emission at the coal-fired electricity plant is taken into account.  Yes, the very same coal plants that we supposedly want to retire pronto. Plug-in cars will remain substantially less efficient than their gasoline-driven hybrid cousins for decades to come. Plug-in cars are not alone in this dreamy clean-future scenario. Billions of taxpayer dollars are being thrown around to initiate a superfast train network. Rail excels at carrying freight efficiently, but not at transporting passengers. Intercity express luxury coach buses are far more environmentally efficient (and cheaper) at carrying people between cities such as New York and Washington, DC, or Chicago and St. Louis.  For distances beyond 350 miles or so that buses can ply conveniently, planes tend to be more efficient than trains.  When there is already a good network of highways and the nation is drowning in debt, is there a need to start from scratch on a new fast train network that is neither cheap nor environmentally efficient?  Would it not make more sense to learn from the superefficient “Chinatown” bus coaches that handily beat Amtrak in price and in greenhouse emissions (while providing free internet access on the ride)? Those entrepreneurs survive just fine without any government subsidies, thank you, but they could use some good access stations on the interstate highway system. I guess contradictions are to be expected from the hodgepodge of regulations and wasteful subsidies that masquerade as our energy policy. The folks who brought us corn ethanol are still at work.