electric cars

The American Subsidy is Coming to an End

by Michael Fumento on January 28, 2011 · 1 comment

in Economy, Ethanol

Two items on the front page of yesterday’s Washington Post: “Record U.S. Deficit Projected this Year” and “Two lawmakers from Michigan propose billions in incentives for buyers of electric cars.” What’s wrong with this picture? That’s the problem. We don’t see anything wrong with this picture. We want it all. But we can’t have it all.

Some people think electric cars are nice, because the pollution they generate is off-site. But as Charles Lane, a liberal, writes: “If the cars were cheaper than gas-power cars of equal performance,” that would be one thing. “But electrics are substantially more expensive than cars of greater quality.” So we have to heavily subsidize them to get them out the door. On the other hand, gasoline-powered car owners are forced to use ethanol. That’s a subsidy to the everyone involved in the ethanol industry, and again it has to be subsidized because it’s inferior to gasoline. It cuts your mileage and does essentially nothing to reduce pollution. You just can’t go around subsidizing everything.

True enough, the main problem is entitlements. Which, not incidentally, are subsidies. Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid already absorb 40 percent of the budget and grow inexorably without anybody casting a single vote to increase them. Left untouched, they will destroy the country. But earmarks are readily controllable and yet still uncontrolled.

Our nation has a spending addiction. And our politicians don’t have the guts to tell the public that no, we can’t have it all. And so we will continue to borrow and the Fed will continue to print money. In other words, subsidize the government so it can subsidize special interests.

But as Peter Orzag, Obama’s former budget director, writes in the Financial Times, “International investors would be wise to pay close attention to fiscal trends within the U.S.”  Don’t worry, they already are. And at some point, although it will be very costly to them, they will get nervous enough to stop subsiding our subsiding.

Orzag adds, “I hope it does not ultimately require a crisis to restore fiscal sustainability at the federal level, but I fear it will.” Indeed, it will. At some point, some point soon, it will all come crashing down.

Watch.

D.C. Installs Private Car Charging Station

by Kathryn Ciano on January 16, 2011

in Energy, Mobility

Remember when the Prius first hit the market, and the D.C. Beltway authorities opened the HOV lanes to electric cars as an incentive to switch? In less than six months, so many urban elites traded in their trusty SUVs for hybrids that the carpool lanes were as bogged down as the rest of the highway.

Never one to be deterred, our nation’s capital is keeping things posh for hybrids. Last year D.C. installed its first public electric car charging station. Now, thanks to this month’s first private charging station in D.C., hybrid owners never have to rub elbows with gas guzzlers, or even with other hybrid drivers.

Here’s We Love DC’s report on the new station:

The ChargePoint units run $1,000-$2,000, and most garages that have a single ChargePoint can easily expand to add 8-10 stations without significant cost.  While they haven’t yet planned for that many at 425 Mass Ave, they’re hoping to see an uptick of electric car purchases by their residents in the coming years.  We spoke with one resident who’d happened upon today’s grand unveiling and she was incredibly positive, both about the building, and about the future of electric vehicles.  A law student at Georgetown University, she was ecstatic at the idea of one day owning a Tesla and using the charging station as soon as she’s paid off her student loans.

A charge from one of the ChargePoint stations will run you up to $5 (if your battery is mostly drained) to as little as $0.50 for just a little juice [Per our commenter below, this may not be correct pricing. We've asked for clarification from Car Charging group, as the prices above are just for the power, not for its distribution - Editor].  Currently, most electric cars have a range under 300 miles, which is comparable to the gas mileage I get out of my Jetta.  Of course, a tank of gas runs me close to $40, so the idea of being able to fill up for a scant $5 has me thinking there’s something to these beasties.

On hand to demonstrate the electric cars was Tesla Motors’ Shaun Philips, who offered free test rides to all of us, as well as limitless information about their Roadster product. Sure, that sports car might retail at $109,000 (look for a DC dealership at 1050 K Street in the not-too-distant future)…

Sounds great, and love the idea of a private apartment building offering innovative perks. But you have to admit: It’s a little silly that these cars are supposedly designed to herald a brighter future, and targeted only to the kind of yuppies weekend warriors that would pay to charge their cars in private.

Even the claims that hybrids are “environmentally friendly” seem dubious in light of how little research we’ve seen into how we’ll dispose of the tons and tons of discarded hybrid batteries slated to hit the landfills in a few years. I wrote at The Washington Examiner:

Electric cars are marketed as one way to make the future better for everyone. But with little research into what we’ll do with discarded batteries (and battery acids), and even less research into the economics of charging substantially higher prices for non-swank mid-sized sedans ostensibly designed to sell, electric cars are more the purview of the upper class than the people’s wagon designed to improve the everyman’s life.

I’d be hard pressed to trade my gas guzzler for a silent futuristic piece of plastic, but no doubt it’s sweet to avoid the everyman by replenishing your car at a private station! Let’s hear it for capitalism, posturing, and…

Oh yea. About those discarded car batteries. We’ll just start selling them to China packaged up with our debt. I’m sure it will be fine.

Image credit: frankh’s flickr photostream.

Obvious answer to electric car “range anxiety” – gov’t handouts!

by Michael Fumento on November 18, 2009 · 1 comment

in Energy

What’s the greatest fear of the owner of a purely electric car? Running out of juice, of course! Not even a tiny gasoline engine to chug on home or to the nearest gas station. This not only eliminates long trips but can induce a nervousness even around town dubbed “range anxiety.” But fear not; there’s an answer! Installing recharging facilities – and lots of ‘em because juicing up a car battery is a sloooooooow process. (Car owners, bring a book. Like “War and Peace.)

On Monday, reports the Washington Post, a coalition of companies including “Nissan, FedEx, PG&E and NRG Energy issued a report calling for billions of dollars in government aid to support the transition of the U.S. vehicle fleet to cars that run on batteries. The group is asking for $124 billion in government incentives over eight years including $13.5 billion for tax credits to build public charging stations.”

What shock! (Pardon the pun.) Aren’t government handouts, including corporate welfare, the answer to all problems? And everybody knows about the big fat surplus the Obama Administration is running. Meanwhile, buyers of electric cars are already getting a fat $7,500 write-off.

Message to electric car sellers and buyers about “range anxiety”: Sounds like a personal problem.

Deregulate Detroit

by Iain Murray on January 13, 2009 · 1 comment

in Bailout Watch, Energy

I have an expansion of my original “deregulatory bailout” plan for Detroit in The Detroit News today. I’m also quoted in their editorial on how energy policy needs to catch up with the auto industry’s – and, it seems, consumers’ (if polls are to be believed) – enthusiasm for electric cars. The Detroit News, by the way, remains the best place to get news on the industry’s design plans – see the box to the right of the editorial, for instance.