A top Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) official tasked with guiding the Biden administration’s emissions regulation policies was unable to approximate the average cost of electric vehicles (EVs) sold in the U.S., despite his agency pushing to largely regulate combustion engine cars out of the auto market over the next 10 years. [emphasis, links added]
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) Joseph Goffman admitted that he “[did not] know the exact dollars” needed to buy the average EV in the U.S. when asked by Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado during a House Oversight Committee hearing on the EPA’s proposed tailpipe emissions regulations.
The proposed regulations would strictly limit the amount of emissions from the total number of vehicles a given manufacturer sells in a year, effectively forcing auto manufacturers to sell a higher proportion of EVs, according to The New York Times.
The OAR is a subunit of the EPA that “develops national programs, policies, and regulations for controlling air pollution,” according to the OAR’s website.
The EPA estimates that the proposed tailpipe emissions regulations could force 67% of all new light-duty vehicles sold after the model year 2032 to be EVs, according to an EPA press release.
The average price paid for new EVs sold in the U.S. in May 2023 was about $55,488, while the average price for new internal combustion engine cars was approximately $48,528, according to data from Cox Automotive.
The Biden administration has publicly stated its goal of having EVs comprise 50% of all American vehicle sales by 2030. Only 5.8% of 2022 new car sales in the U.S. were all-electric, according to The New York Times.
A combustion engine car emits 8,887 grams (~20 lbs) of carbon dioxide (CO2) per gallon of fuel, while EVs do not emit any CO2 while in operation, according to the EPA’s website.
CO2 is by far the most prevalent of the “greenhouse gases,” which trap heat inside the atmosphere, according to the EPA’s website. [The EPA didn’t list the greenhouse gas water vapor from its page, which accounts for nearly all warming in the atmosphere. –CCD Ed.]
However, EV charging stations are much harder to come by than standard gas stations, and their batteries can take long periods to reach full charge, according to Autoweek.
The manufacturing process for EVs is also more carbon-intensive than that of gas-powered cars, according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Read rest at Daily Caller
Par for the course of the Biden administration. The incompetence of this administration is by far the worst I’ve ever seen. And it seems to be the worst in the most technical areas where expertise is most urgently needed such as the EPA, the CDC, Energy Dept, Interior Dept, Transportation (looking at you Mayor Pete).
Why would the EPA or any of the nameless unelected government bureaucrats know anything or even care about the value of money or the impact to the peons of society?
It is very typical of liberals to think that their project is so worthy that cost is no object. Along those lines, Joseph Goffman has no need to know how much EV’s cost. I need to emphasize that the 14% higher cost for an electric vehicle is not the main cost issue. Most American families can not afford a new gasoline car but rely on used cars. The average age of cars on US highways is 12.5 years which means many families are relying on cars older than that. The main problem with electric vehicles is their batteries wear out much sooner than the drive train of a gasoline car. These batteries are prohibitively expensive for the average family to replace if they are even available. As the demand for this limit resource increases this will get worse.
Here are two examples that I’m aware on how used electric vehicles perform. One now has a range of 60 miles before its charge runs out. Another has a range of 90 miles on a full charge but it takes many hours to reach that charge.
A gallon of gas weighs 6 pounds. How can burning it generate 20 pounds of co2?
Despite my scientific background this question threw me for a while. It is a matter of atomic weight. Gasoline is almost entirely carbon and hydrogen. Very little of the weight comes from hydrogen with an atomic mass of one. Most of the weight comes from the carbon at an atomic mass of 12. Burning gasoline adds two oxygens (CO2) to each carbon. Oxygen has an atomic mass of sixteen. This puts the atomic mass of carbon dioxide at 44.
Thank You David,
It’s been a long time since high school chemistry and I’m actually embarrassed that I couldn’t figure that out.
There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. We need more inquisitive people. Notice that governments tax the “44” part of the equation, not the “12” .
Like in the movie Ghostbuster and the bothersome EPA Buricrat forcing them to shut down their equipment and the Ghosts are released including Stay Puff Marshmallow Man