My latest in PJ Media:
Jen Psaki let the cat out of the bag a couple of weeks ago, when she explained the upside of high gas prices (which so very many people had somehow overlooked): “Look, our view is that the rise in gas prices over the long term makes an even stronger case for doubling down on our investment and our focus on clean energy options, so we are not relying on the fluctuations and OPEC and their willingness to put more supply and meet the demand in the market.” On Tuesday, Old Joe Biden doubled down on the idea that skyrocketing gas prices are all part of a Leftist social engineering project when he claimed that those who bought electric cars are saving money these days instead of paying exorbitant prices at the pump.
The ostensible president read off his teleprompter: “I also want to briefly address one myth about inflated gas prices: They are not due to environmental measures.” Of course, Joe! How could anyone have possibly gotten the crazy idea that killing the Keystone Pipeline and destroying America’s energy independence could have anything, anything whatsoever, to do with rising gas prices? “My effort to combat climate change is not raising the price of gas or increasing its availability.” He meant “decreasing,” but you knew that. And since this is Joe Biden, you also knew that he was going to tell you how a sow’s ear is really a silk purse, and a disaster is actually manna raining from heaven: “It — what it is doing: It’s increasing the availability of jobs. Jobs building electric cars, like the one I drove at the GM Detroit — at the GM factory in Detroit last week.”
Biden went even farther, pointing out that if you had been one of the environmentally-conscious folks who bought an electric car, you wouldn’t be watching more and more of your income flying away at the gas pump: “For the hundreds of thousands of folks who bought one of those electric cars, they’re going to save $800 to $1,000 in fuel costs this year.” Not only are they weathering a bread shortage by eating cake, but they’re also helping all of us out: “And we’re going to put those savings within reach of more Americans and create jobs installing solar panels, batteries, electric heat pumps — jobs making those clean power-generating devices.” This is going to result in a new dawning of prosperity: “And by the way, deploying these technologies for each home where they’re installed is going to save folks an additional hundreds of dollars in energy costs every year.”
There is more. Read the rest here.
JimJFox says
It is tragic that the USA, home of Tesla that started the EV Revolution is lagging far behind the rest of the world in take up of electric vehicles.
Infidel says
As Andrew Wilkow pointed out, the Biden administration has ended the mining of those rare earth minerals in the US that would be useful in the manufacture of those batteries, while at the same time, letting China corner up countries like Chile and Argentina that produce the Cobalt, Nickel and Lithium that is needed in the manufacture of such batteries. End result is that all these ‘green energy sources’ will have to come from China, even if it’s sourced outside that country. That’s how stupid and demented this government is
Of course, there’s also the fact that electric vehicles get charged by the electrical grid and charging stations that are set up anywhere, but that energy does not come from solar or wind. It comes from whatever powers the grid, be it coal, oil or natural gas. If climate change (as opposed to a socialist-type control of the economy) was the real motivation for these policies, we would be having nuclear power stations in many places. Today’s 4th generation nuclear technology totally precludes the chances of a Fukushima or a Chernobyl taking place, which is the only argument against nuclear power
There is also the fact that when we had the Keystone pipeline and other fracking activity going, energy prices were at their lowest, and w/ it, prices of everything else in the economy. There is that cliche – ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, but Biden and today’s Dems are too deranged to understand why that cliche exists
revereridesagain says
-1
See reality checks by contributors below. We need to be pressured into electric vehicles like we need yet another WuFluManchu mask mandate and lockdown.
Terry Gain says
It’s tragic that so many believe that electric vehicles are a viable alternative to gasoline powered vehicles. Any trip over 250 miles will require you to
recharge the battery.
Lose your freedom a bit at a time and soon you will have none.
Westman says
Biden is a technical ignoramus who reads the information he is given. And too many people believe that electric cars are some kind of simple, easy, solution.
Let’s look at reality:
1. We cannot all buy electric cars and have the electricity to charge them. Renewables cannot be created at the same rate as the increased electricity demand. China is building hundreds of COAL-FIRED generation plants, every year, to meet their increasing demand – effectively canceling any effort to reduce “global warming”. Their response to criticism – drop dead.
2. There is no current power infrastructure, transformers, lines, substations, that can carry the increased load. Again, the buildout would greatly lag the increased demand. Renewables are already retarded by unavailable power-carriers in remote locations.
3. It is fiction that electric vehicles will eliminate pollution by automobiles. The vehicle energy must always be produced by some inefficient means. The vehicle batteries will waste energy in heat whether charging or discharging and this adds to the power losses of the power station and its distribution system during charging.
The source of the pollution is simply moved to the source, the electric generating plant. Many of those plants are gas or coal fired. Nuclear plants take 4-5 years to build and bring on-line and the problem of growing nuclear waste has never been solved.
4. No one talks about the need to dispose of 600 million US worn-out vehicle battery packs in the first 20 years, which will be a huge environmental problem. And what about those Tesla Power Walls? How will we dispose of them? And all the solar panels that will be shot in 20 years? Where will they go?
5. There will be toxic byproducts from manufacturing the electric vehicle battery packs and all the petroleum-derived plastics used in the vehicle.
6. We cannot even create an all electric fleet nor maintain it without petroleum or coal for all the plastic parts.
7. All electric vehicles, because of their complexity, will make the repair scams of the past seem minor. The upkeep cost will be higher than combustion engine vehicles because few owners will have the knowledge to repair them and that will give record profits to the service industry.
8. Government wants taxes. That means they must tax the mileage of electric vehicles to maintain roads and that also means another information vacuum with its nose in your car.
Electric vehicles are not a panacea for pollution or economy as we will soon discover. It only appears that way when limited to simple terms. And, we cannot eliminate petroleum.
It all seems like a great idea for the individual until the real costs to society are inspected. We cannot have an all-electric fleet without solving more-pressing, ignored, problems.
LB says
What Biden’s handlers who wrote his speech omitted to mention here is that producing a single electric car expends more electricity than that car will use in its expected lifetime. Which wouldn’t normally be an issue if the Biden’s Deep State regime wasn’t so hellbent on waging war on fossil fuels–the #1 energent used in electricity production.
No amount of “green” energy (solar, wind, geothermal, etc) will ever be able to replace fossil fuels in terms of both cost and reliability because, just as electric cars, mass producing solar panels or windmills expends a lot more electricity than they would be able to produce, not to mention that the amounts of land needed to install the “green energy farms” compared to a single natural gas boiler plant are enormous.
I recently read that in the UK, which has “progressed” (read: digressed) much further than the USA in implementing “green” energy sources, there will be government scheduled electricity rationing, meaning some parts of the country will have electricity and some won’t, and they will interchange at scheduled intervals. Why? Simple: by cutting out fossil fuels, there is now a shortage of electricity production compared to its demand, so every UK citizen should get ready for a communist style government-mandated electricity rationing in the near future.
Not to worry though, the people that truly matter–the political globalist elites–will have all the electricity they want, and if a few plebs need to freeze and/or starve to death so that they, the exalted heaven-sent blue-blood master-race, can live in comfort, then who are you to complain you dirty peasant! Just eat bugs and live in a pod until you die obediently as you are told!
mortimer says
In the matter of science and engineering, those globalist ideologues are as ignorant as can be.
Ideology is all they care about. The people be damned, Science by damned. The economy be damned.
It’s all about the oligarchs. The oligarchs are up and out of sight and pulling the puppet’s strings.
Westman says
Amen Mortimer, the ignorance is stunning. The media IS complicit through its laziness of manipulating emotions instead of offering factual, comprehensive, information.
I once thought salesmen were the laziest people but after observing the re-re-repackaged news, since the introduction of the internet, that prize goes to journalism. Very little footwork or real study when it comes to anything technical. Just find someone popular to quote. If the other journalists are quoting him/her, then it must be right.
Infidel says
Looks like everyone has forgotten what happened last winter in Texas, when a major snowstorm totally disabled the local windmills, thereby cutting off power during critical times. People need to realize that wind is a joke. Solar has some promise in helping w/ peak loads during summer, such as the air-conditioning. But the real answer is nuclear, and 4th generation nuclear technology won’t give us the likes of a Chernobyl or a Fukushima
Westman says
You are right, however, the power companies won’t take the economic risk after being burned on older fusion designs. Thorium reactors might be a good solution if their final development was government subsidized.
Every scheme to store renewable power has a efficiency loss both going in and out of storage that everyone seems to ignore along with the eventual disposal of worn-out toxic storage components.
Nuclear may be our final solution. We can’t use petro forever and renewables can never be the complete energy source. Renewables like all complex systems introduce vulnerabilities. Imagine a hail storm with baseball size clumps hitting a 100 Megawatt Arizona solar farm. How long would it be out and would the collapse take down other parts of the power grid?
Check Burry says
How can she or jo claim savings when leccy cars are much dearer to buy. Has he any electric bomb proof large vehicles in the big fleet he does parades in?
I doubt it.
Is the white house using solar panels, and insulation in the walls, ceilings etc.
Lead by example jo.
mortimer says
Expensive electric cars are beyond the means of most families, especially with high inflation going on. They are INSANE.
Electric bicycles are even more expensive than a used car.
Westman says
Met one of those owners last week riding his ebike in the cold at a quick-stop. Asked about range, he said 60 miles. Asked about price, said $3000. Got back in my $2000 car that gets 30 mpg, turned on the heater and drove to work.
somehistory says
omarova…biden’s latest *pick*…ugly and evil…says they plan to kill the industries that change their energy source into electricity we can use to light our homes, run stuff…coal, natural gas, oil… and once these are “bankrupt,” what then will be the **source** of the power for charging up these electric cars?
The wind has died down and the sun is clouded over…as everyone is sitting in the dark, they can smile because they don’t have to buy gasoline any more.
Charge your very expensive…average person can’t afford to buy one and some households depend on two cars for work, etc…..car, waiting for 8 hours for the full charge on your home wiring…drive a few miles and look for a charging station that has an outlet not in use…pay to plug in…and wait for the charge that will get you to the next station.
For those who love skipping work…this is a perfect *excuse*….sorry, boss, waiting for a charge…all outlets in use…sorry boss, taking time to get enough power to get to work..
sorry boss, the spouse is washing clothes, baking a ham, and running the vacuum…waiting..
biden’s an evil fool…what a combination…and he has plenty of others working to ruin the lives of those who pay their salaries they are not earning. It’s clearly apparent that cb psaki loves lying and trying to sound as though she’s smarter than anyone in the room.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Isn’t Mr. Magoo celebrating Thanksgiving with a billionaire this year? You’d think, with all of his false rhetoric, he’d be helping out in a soup kitchen. Oh, the irony!
Infidel says
Oh yeah, what says Scranton better than Nantucket? ?
Rarely says
What bothers me most is the possibility that the idiots we elect actually believe the garbage they espouse.
HugoHackenbush says
“Let Them Eat Cake” Was a hysterical yet biting musical by the Gershwin brothers and others that lampooned leftist politics, revolution, dictatorship and other aspects of politicians and the military .
James Lincoln says
So, according to the feature article:
“Biden Crows That Those Who Bought Electric Cars Aren’t Hurting From High Gas Prices”
So I guess that Sleepy Joe will no longer have any use for his ’67 Corvette convertible.
I’ll gladly take it off his hands…
https://www.foxnews.com/auto/joe-biden-1967-chevrolet-corvette
Westman says
“For the hundreds of thousands of folks who bought one of those electric cars, they’re going to save $800 to $1,000 in fuel costs this year.”
Let’s see, it’s a common joke that taking your gas powered car to the dealer for any minor problem starts at $400. Now imagine when your electric car rolls(or is pushed) into the dealer. Of course his mechanic can’t repair an inverter Printed Circuit Board at the $10 part level, so you find you need an entire replacement board for a mere $1000. This is the future of electric cars. Forget the gas savings.
Remember when AT&T was broken up and we were told that we could now have our own CHEAPER phone and that would spur innovation? We got the innovation alright, $800 phones and $50+ a month to an ISP.
What did phone service cost when AT&T was broken up? $26 a month, including the phone.
Now we are vulnerable to an unreliable phone system that generates huge profits for a few corporations. If you really think it’s reliable, look into any weather, flood, or earthquake distaster in the past 10 years.
For that matter, imagine your car’s battery system and motors being underwater for a few hours.Total loss?
Infidel says
Actually, b/w the break-up of AT&T (followed by multiple mergers and breakups again) and the $800 phones, we did have cheap phones, like the Motorola RAZR in the 00s. Reason our phones are $800 and up is our addiction to those things: the iPhone was originally targeted as being a high end top-of-the-line phone, although its cuteness got everyone (in the US) addicted to it. Also don’t forget that iPhones and Androids are more glorified miniature computers than telephones
The $50/month ISP is more due to places that have only one ISP. For instance, I’m stuck w/ Concast, and couldn’t get Spectrum even if I wanted it. I did have it in the previous 2 cities that I lived, and loved it, but here, I’m stuck w/ Xfinity. On this particular one, I blame the GOP more for allowing Big Telecom to bribe them into preventing localities in their states from rolling their own metropolitan services, thereby guaranteeing them monopolies where they exist
‘Strengthening the grid’ is one way we can get over this problem of reliability. Once we have our electrical cabling underground, we can include w/ that all the Central Office equipment that can be remotely managed these days, and it would also be inured to flooding, EMP bursts and so on
Westman says
Everything you have written is true, Infidel. The problem is things will mostly be done by shortest , cheapest, method to reach maximum profitability instead of best practice methods. “Maximizing return to shareholders without regard to its effects on society” is a current major flaw of Capitalism that neither Socialism nor Communism can solve.Their environmental and human-cost legacies are even worse than Capitalism.
Inside of the left is a dictator screaming to get out and control society, “for their own good”. We can’t afford a repeat of that failure. Maybe new generations will find a cooperative way forward that doesn’t curtail freedom yet overcomes the current split in Western society. Hopeful.
James Lincoln says
Westman,
“Now we are vulnerable to an unreliable phone system that generates huge profits for a few corporations. If you really think it’s reliable, look into any weather, flood, or earthquake distaster in the past 10 years.”
Yes, a true statement.
And, during the disaster, we actually rely on ham radio operators.
https://hamradioprepper.com/emergency-hams-help-during-disasters/