• Privacy Policy
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
Climate Change Dispatch
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
Climate Change Dispatch
No Result
View All Result

Stossel: Some Inconvenient Facts About Electric Vehicles, Part 1

by John Stossel
November 02, 2022, 11:13 AM
in News and Opinion, Videos
Reading Time: 4 mins read
A A
9
Share on FacebookShare on XwitterShare on Linkedin

child labor congoElectric car sales are up 66% this year.

President Joe Biden promotes them, saying things like, “The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified” and, “There’s no turning back.”

To make sure we have no choice in the matter, some left-leaning states have moved to ban gas-powered cars altogether. [bold, links added]

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning them by 2035. Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York copied California. Washington state’s politicians said they’d make it happen even faster, by 2030.

Thirty countries also say they’ll phase out gas-powered cars.

But this is just dumb. It will not happen. It’s magical thinking.

In my new video, I point out some “inconvenient” facts about electric cars, simple truths that politicians and green activists just don’t seem to understand.

“Electric cars are amazing,” says physicist Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute. “But they won’t change the future in any significant way (as far as) oil use or carbon dioxide emissions.”

Inconvenient fact 1: Selling more electric cars won’t reduce oil use very much.

“The world has 15, 18 million electric vehicles now,” says Mills. “If we (somehow) get to 500 million, that would reduce world oil consumption by about 10%. That’s not nothing, but it doesn’t end the use of oil.”

Most of the world’s oil is used by things like “airplanes, buses, big trucks, and the mining equipment that gets the copper to build the electric cars.”

Even if all vehicles somehow did switch to electricity, there’s another problem: Electricity isn’t very green.

I laugh [when] talking to friends who are all excited about their electric car, assuming it doesn’t pollute. They go silent when I ask, “Where does your car’s electricity come from?”

They don’t know. They haven’t even thought about it.

Inconvenient fact 2: Although driving an electric car puts little additional carbon into the air, producing the electricity to charge its battery adds plenty.

Most of America’s electricity is produced by burning natural gas and coal. Just 12% comes from wind or solar power.

Auto companies don’t advertise that. “Electric vehicles in general are better and more sustainable for the environment,” says Ford’s Linda Zhang in a BBC interview.

“She’s a Ford engineer,” I say to Mills. “She’s not ignorant.”

“She’s not stupid,” he replies. “But ignorance speaks to what you know. You have to mine, somewhere on earth, 500,000 pounds of minerals and rock to make one battery.”

American regulations make mining difficult, so most of it is done elsewhere, polluting those countries. Some mining is done by children. Some are done in places that use slave labor.

Even if those horrors didn’t exist, mining itself adds lots of carbon to the air.

“If you’re worried about carbon dioxide,” says Mills, “the electric vehicle has emitted 10 to 20 tons of carbon dioxide (from the mining, manufacturing, and shipping) before it even gets to your driveway.”

“Volkswagen published an honest study (in which they) point out that the first 60,000 miles or so you’re driving an electric vehicle, that electric vehicle will have emitted more carbon dioxide than if you just drove a conventional vehicle.”

An electric Volvo C40 needs to be driven around 68,400 miles to have a lower carbon impact than the petrol version… if powered by a global electricity mix – but only 30,000 miles if powered by wind-generated electricity. #ZeroOmissions #COP26 https://t.co/AIoAaZECIo pic.twitter.com/WxngqPvQqe

— Volvo Car UK (@VolvoCarUK) November 2, 2021

You would have to drive an electric car “100,000 miles” to reduce emissions by just “20 or 30%, which is not nothing, but it’s not zero.”

No, it’s not.

If you live in New Zealand, where there’s lots of hydro and geothermal power, electric cars pollute less. But in America, your “zero-emission vehicle” adds lots of greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere.

Politicians and electric car sellers don’t mention that. Most probably don’t even know.

In a future column, three more inconvenient facts about electric cars.

Read more at Townhall

  • Truth
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Gettr
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…
Share via
  • Facebook
  • Like
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Digg
  • Tumblr
  • VKontakte
  • Print
  • Email
  • Reddit
  • Buffer
  • Love This
  • Weibo
  • Pocket
  • Xing
  • Odnoklassniki
  • WhatsApp
  • Meneame
  • Blogger
  • Amazon
  • Yahoo Mail
  • Gmail
  • AOL
  • Newsvine
  • HackerNews
  • Evernote
  • MySpace
  • Mail.ru
  • Viadeo
  • Line
  • Flipboard
  • Comments
  • SMS
  • Viber
  • Telegram
  • Subscribe
  • Skype
  • Facebook Messenger
  • Kakao
  • LiveJournal
  • Yammer
  • Edgar
  • Fintel
  • Mix
  • Instapaper
  • Copy Link
  • Truth
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Gettr
  • Baidu
  • Mastodon
  • Threads
  • Bluesky

Join our list

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

Thank you for subscribing.

Something went wrong.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

Related Posts

Energy

MISO Ignored Warnings Before Holiday Blackout Left Blue City In The Dark

May 27, 2025
Extreme Weather

‘Doomed From Birth’: How Climate Alarmism Is Stoking An Epidemic Of Youth Anxiety

May 26, 2025
Energy

GOP’s Big, Beautiful Bill Would Rescind $500 Billion In Green Energy Handouts

May 26, 2025

Comments 9

  1. Ralph Glorioso says:
    3 years ago

    Unfortunately,, as Stossel points out, the “Greens” have mono-vision, which restricts their ability to see beyond the basic, desired outcome. Mostly children or immature adults, they have committed to major errors; They belief that climate change is man-made and they spend no time assessing where the electricity to power EVs comes from. Probably the best all-around source of sustainable electricity is nuclear, but the greenies never would allow this.
    Let the bastards freeze in the dark.
    Ralph

  2. Matt Dalby says:
    3 years ago

    “This is just dumb. It will not happen. It’s magical thinking”
    The first part is true, unfortunately the rest of the statement could be correct. If the green blob retains it’s influence in those states and countries that want to ban gas powered cars they will be banned. The magical thinking part is the belief that less well off people will still be able to afford to own a car and mass EV ownership will improve the environment on a global scale.

  3. Drewski says:
    3 years ago

    Electric cars are like fibre optic internet compared to a dial-up modem

    I don’t care how much of a motor head you are, once you drive an electric vehicle, you will not want to drive anything else

    • Sonnyhill says:
      3 years ago

      It wouldn’t be the same experience for me that it is for you, that smugness you experience driving around powered by other people’s money.

    • Graham McDonald says:
      3 years ago

      Have a look around and under your vehicle. Where does a tow rope get attached? Had an insurance chap visit. He got stuck in soft sand leaving our place. Tow? Not possible. Digging and planks.

      So, stay in the city and on the freeways, don’t even think of going off pavement. (That way I won’t meet you at my favorite trout stream.)

    • David Lewis says:
      3 years ago

      David, I have no problem believing that many people really like driving electric cars. The issue is affordability. In an interview Elon Musk volunteered that the average American family can not afford one of his cars. Here is our situation. We typically pay $4,000 to $6,000 for a used car that we drive for 100,000 miles. For an EV to be feasible, we would have to be able buy a used one in same price range, same size, and with a battery that has a life expectancy of 100,000. It is true that some advances might reduce the price of electric cars, but currently the prices are increasing rapidly. It is less expensive to maintain electric vehicles, but this doesn’t even come close to compensating for the greater purchase cost and the batteries needing to be replaced. Electric car sales will increase as the wealthy buy them, but this will hit a plateau as most families can not afford them.

  4. Sonnyhill says:
    3 years ago

    I’ve never owned a lava lamp, pet rock, a pair of earth shoes, a Segway or a Peloton. Why should I buy an EV?

  5. Steve Bunten says:
    3 years ago

    No mention about how many battery replacements will be needed to reach 100,000 miles driven. Each new battery is going to reset the CO2 clock. I drove my Honda CRV over 100,000 with only standard maintenance and tire replacements. And I got over 30MPG average during that time. My son now owns it.

    • Colin Harkin says:
      3 years ago

      Steve, when a BEV battery needs replacing, that could cause the vehicle to be written off because the price of a new battery is likely to exceed the value of the car.
      We have a 1989 Mitsubishi 4×4 that’s travelled 300,000kms. We had the engine rebuilt and it goes really good for such an old vehicle. Engine rebuild cost $4,400. I expect this car will last another 10 years at least.

Stay Connected On Social Media

gab-logo

Donate Today

Beating back the alarmist narrative takes time and money. Please donate today to help!

Recent Posts

  • new orleans blackoutMISO Ignored Warnings Before Holiday Blackout Left Blue City In The Dark
    May 27, 2025
    Nearly 100,000 lost power in New Orleans after MISO cut the grid, raising alarm over blackout risk tied to green energy replacing coal and gas. […]
  • protest FFF world on fire‘Doomed From Birth’: How Climate Alarmism Is Stoking An Epidemic Of Youth Anxiety
    May 26, 2025
    Hollywood heirs like Ramona Sarsgaard and Violet Affleck are spiraling into climate panic—fueled by activism, media hype, and elite institutions. […]
  • Biden touting green economyGOP’s Big, Beautiful Bill Would Rescind $500 Billion In Green Energy Handouts
    May 26, 2025
    The House-passed BBB would repeal $500B in green handouts, slash subsidies, and undo key parts of the inaptly named Inflation Reduction Act. […]
  • humpback whale ny coastHow Climate Buzzwords Hijacked The Language To Hide Environmental Harm
    May 26, 2025
    Climate buzzwords like ‘carbon footprint’ and ‘green energy’ mislead the public and mask real environmental damage. […]
  • north sea oil rigTrump Urges UK To Cut Sky-High Bills With More Drilling, Less Renewables
    May 23, 2025
    Trump urged the UK to slash sky-high energy bills by expanding oil and gas drilling, embracing fracking, and ditching costly renewables and imports. […]
  • Ocean waves near pierMeteorologist Slams CNN For Stoking Debunked Fears Of A Collapsing AMOC
    May 23, 2025
    CNN pushes debunked AMOC collapse claims to fuel coastal flooding and economic panic—ignoring data, expert doubts, and real insurance cost drivers. […]
  • NY Times headline screencapNYT Decries NOAA Staffing Cuts While Ignoring Altered Temperature Records
    May 23, 2025
    NYT highlights Trump rollback of climate programs, but skips over NOAA’s temp data tampering and holes in the climate crisis narrative. […]
  • gavin newsom joe bidenSenate Strikes Down California EV Mandate In Blow To Biden’s Climate Agenda
    May 23, 2025
    Senate overturns California EV mandate, striking down one of Biden’s final climate moves in a blow to draconian green energy rules. […]
  • mountain wind turbinesOregon Ranks Near The Bottom In Rolling Out Its Green Energy Schemes
    May 22, 2025
    Oregon’s green energy push is more talk than action—marked by failing wind turbines, oil leaks, risky offshore plans, and stalled climate policies. […]
  • electric truck chargingThreatened With Legal Action, Calif. Makes U-Turn On Electric Truck Mandate
    May 22, 2025
    California repeals its electric truck mandate after legal pushback from 17 states, raising questions about nationwide emissions and vehicle standards. […]

Get Instant Email Notifications

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new posts by email either instantly or daily. Check your Junk folder for any verification emails upon subscribing.

Submit a tip

Please enter your email, so we know you're human.

Books We Like

very convenient warming

exposing great lie

Have a suggestion? Let us know! We swap out books based on your input. We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. See here.

  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact Us

© Portions copyright Climate Change Dispatch

Share via
  • Threads
  • gab-logo Gab
  • Mastodon
  • Buffer
  • Telegram
  • Email
  • Copy Link
  • Share Using More Networks…
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Videos
  • Who We Are
  • Facts Vs. Fearmongering
    • Real science vs Junk Science
      • 1100-plus Peer-Reviewed Studies
      • 97% – Myth of the Climate Change Consensus
      • Michael Crichton: Aliens Cause Global Warming
      • Climate change and its causes
      • Climate Science Primer
      • CO2 is not pollution
      • Deceptive Surface Temperature Records
      • Editorial: Great Global Warming Hoax
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 1
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 2
      • Rules for Climate Radicals: Part 3
      • Why CO2 Is A Minor Player In Global Climate
      • Why Politicized Science Is So Dangerous
    • Facts Not Fear
      • A Simple Question For Climate Alarmists
      • Climate Change – The Facts
      • Climate Change Fears Are Empirically Baseless
      • Global Warming 101
      • Global Warming Q&A
      • Understanding The Medieval Warm Period
      • Ocean Cycles and Climate
      • Overview of Plate Climatology Theory
      • Precautionary Principle
      • Should We Celebrate Carbon Dioxide?
      • The Skeptics Handbook
      • Weather Versus Climate
      • Why I’m a GW skeptic
      • Winning the climate debate with facts
      • Why Aliens Cause Global Warming
    • Greenhouse FAQs
      • CO2, Plants, & Industry
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • How much have temps changed?
      • Is global warming real?
      • Measuring temperature
      • Swimming in CO2?
      • Scientists urge caution?
      • Today’s warming trend
      • Variations in temperature
    • Gore’s Greatest Goofs
      • Deconstructing the Truth
      • Fact-Checking Al Gore’s Latest Predictions
      • How Gore Created The Global Warming Hoax
    • Inside Real Climate
      • Closer look at the 97% Consensus
      • GW’s Amazing Story
      • IPCC gets failing grade
      • Real Climate Exposed!
      • Truth about Real Climate
      • We’ve Been Conned
      • What is there a 97% consensus about?
    • Behind the IPCC
      • 1,000 Scientists Dissent
      • Climategate: Caught Green-Handed!
      • Climategate Inquiries
      • Climategate Inquiries 2
      • NIPCC Report Now Available
      • Understanding the Climategate Inquiries
  • Submissions
  • Contact Us

© 2025 Climate Change Dispatch