I Hate Electric Cars

I find it curious that as we wrestle with energy issues, we are at the point where we seem to really believe that the solution is to consume alternate forms of energy, rather than the painfully obvious answer that nobody (in a significant enough position of influence) is brave enough to shout from the rooftops:

Use Less Energy.

I am so sick of the crap we are told to believe with respect to electric cars. Electric cars as a solution to our "energy independence" mantra has absolutlely no leg to stand on. I realize that the initial idea of this will incite many of you (at least one of the two who will read this). Ten years is too long to get cost-effective units to market, and ten more years for them to get traction once they hit market defeats the purpose. I've heard on NPR that 2020 will see about 25% as a generous estimation of all new vehicles as electric. That's only the new ones. How is that a solution?

If the 1970s energy crisis taught us anything, it shows that the US isn't long-suffering enough to sustain and complete such a long-term commitment, especially given that the lure of cheap oil makes it too cost-prohibitive to see through the end. 20 years? Yeah right. Somehow, America forgot after the 1973 oil embargo until the 1979 energy crisis.

Make no mistake, America won't succeed making electric cars anything other than an overstated election issue rhetoric.

All through the '70s alternatives were discussed and researched and we learned a ton. We went nuclear, solar, hydro-, atmos-, and every which way on oil's ( and OPEC's) *bum.* We know how to harness the tide. We know how to harness the wind. We know how to harness the atom and the sun. We just don't. I own a home in Arizona, and it will cost me in excess of $25,000 USD to put solar panels on it. Phoenix, Arizona, where the sun never stops (EVER), 30 years later still costs insane money to harvest the most abundant resource there: the sun. Instead, Phoenix pays through the nose to cool homes, fill pools, light the streets and light homes.

Seriously? I mean, seriously?

Money to research and stuff is nice and gives people warm fuzzies, but meanwhile, the streets are congested, pollution is nasty, commutes are terrible, junk yards are filling up,

Let me tell you what I think I learned this past year. As stated forever ago (probably the last blog post over a year ago), I love the train and bus. I love it for the time I get back, the driving I don't have to do, the comfort and stress-free way to start and end my day. What I've seen the past year is that ridership shot through the roof this past summer. I hated it. A bunch of noobs gets on the bus, making me stand. Then once gas drops below $3/gallon, you lose a bunch of them. Then below $2.50, a bunch more dropped off. Now that it is less than $2/gallon, I'm back to seeing all the old-timers and hard-core bus and train riders. Hey there Jill, James, Aaron and Barb. Long time, no see.

The only way to get American citizens to take this seriously is to make them pay for it, and pay through the nose for it. There came a point this summer where we were no longer willing to shell out to drive our HUM-Vs and Denalis 20-30+ miles to and from work. All the disgruntled gas addicts were in rehab on MY train, and I was left standing in the aisle... I welcomed them to the brotherhood all the same.

$4/gallon gas was awesome. It woke us up (as a nation), and made us realize how bad excessive fuel consumption really is, albeit only on a superficial level rather than some meaningful long-lived moral level sufficient to get a meaningful commitment. At least it did win an election, though. Electric cars may be more "ecological" today and tomorrow, but in 10 years when we have graveyards of electric car batteries, what do we say? We are simply punting the ecology question another 10 years rather than addressing the root issue.

Use Less Energy.

Let's pretend for a minute that somehow we found a way to power cars for free with absolutely no environmental impact whatsoever. We still lose. I'm pretty sure that every commuter hates the traffic. The commute. The insurance. The car maintenance and repair: tires, engines, transmissions, brakes, windows, not to mention auto body repair and the personal injury and trauma following automobile accidents. If you really think that more roads and more cars is a good idea, spend a week in Southern California.

I feel like the concept of "no" is something America has forgotten. Greed and excess landed us in the financial crisis: greed and excess took out too many over-extended mortgages; greed and excess made horrible mortgages with horrible terms available to consumers; greed and excess and predatory lending sold homes to unqualified borrowers; greed and excess then packaged these mortgages as risky securities; greed and excess got many Americans to put their retirement in the hands of these "investments"; greed and excess promotes credit default swaps as a good idea (not much more than betting with a bookie) since the late '90s; greed and excess caused oil futures trading to artificially inflate the cost of fuel in the face of failed mortgage-backed securities; greed and excess over-extended credit lines for things we knew deep down inside we couldn't afford; greed and excess defines our trade imbalance and why China owns more of the US at increasingly faster rates. We as a nation are so over-leveraged. Our current economic situation shouldn't be a surprise to anybody, nor was it unpredicted every step of the way.

Go all Nancy Reagan on Detroit (and the likes of them): We need to say no. We don't need more cars, we need to consume less energy. We need to do it before it is too late. I don't know when it is "too late" necessarily, but there are things to be done in the immediate here and now that can address all these issues and more.

A year or so ago, during the middle of rush hour, a Minnesota bridge just fell into the river below it, tragically killing 13 and injuring 145 more. The nation needs to re-evaluate its infrastructure pretty seriously. This is true, even before our economy fell to pieces. I would prefer that this happens proactively rather than reactively; we shouldn't choose to fix a bridge or dam based on casualty count.

Mass transit solves more problems than an electric car. Repeat: trains, buses, light rails and the like get this nation much further along than rehashing a broken paradigm.

Build rails now.

"But how do we pay for it ... ?" When people are falling into rivers, money somehow appears to rebuild a bridge. There is money for this, and there is plenty of it.

We saw America content with paying up to $4-$5/gallon gasoline. Now that gas is "cheap" again, I say toll the roads and toll them often. Put all that money towards rails and trains and the like.

The thought of even one red cent going to the Detriot 3 makes me ill. Those companies have shown their ability to survive, and that was only at bankruptcy's feet. Through the '80s and '90s GM came close to bankrupt several times. Are we surprised to see them at it again. Are we really willing to subsidize 30 years of poor leadership with taxpayer money? Are we, as a nation, going to pay off the unions and execs of poorly-managed corporations? Are we joking? If the business isn't profitable, it should fail. I know several small businesses that aren't weathering this storm too well, yet the nation is willing to forgive gross mistakes made by horrible corporations? I wanted Quizno's this afternoon, but when I got there I found a sign in the door that said they were evicted for not paying rent.

Rather than give any of the $25B to any of Detroit's 3, I say give $1B to 25 different companies working to do the things that the "big three" think is "unprofitable."

But really, I say forget that too. Give grants to companies investing in civil projects. Give grants to local municipalities willing to put meaningful solutions in place. Give $1B to the 25 most congested areas, for example, to put trains and stuff. Tolling the roads will thin them out, making more room for more expedient buses and vanpools and the like. Even if Detroit fails, there is plenty of workforce available to build all this infrastructure. Apparently, we are in the middle of a recession, and unemployment is rising.

I think that spending $10B of the "bailout" package is better spent sending the 130 million voters to Europe for a week to give them a taste for what things can be. Why does every household need 3 cars?

Let's just nip all of these in the bud. The U.S. has already decided it's going into insane debt (which I intensely hate to the tune of $700B), so let's spend it wisely and not feed the problems that led us where we are.

I mean, really. What are we doing?

I hate that we think that more of the same will have any impact. I hate it. For such an "advanced" and "educated" civilization, we are very selfish and not too bright.

As Bill Cosby says, "Come On, People!!!!"