No Matter

I have been an owner of an electric vehicle (EV) for longer than (guessing here) 99.5% of all automobile owners in the United States. I chose to buy an EV long before it became fashionable because as an engineer, my assessment was that the technology is: (1) simpler (less room for failure), (2) higher performance (the torque curve of an electric motor tells the story), (3) more environmentally friendly ("long tail-pipe" arguments are both dishonest and generally incorrect) than equivalent internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, and (4) considerably less expense to maintain and the drive. Sure, there are other parameters that must guide the decision to acquire an EV, including range limitations and initial cost, but for the vast majority of drivers, EVs are simply a better option.

Today, EVs are in fashion for many automotive buyers and the segment is the fastest growing for all cars, and soon, many light trucks. It's ironic, therefore, that climate change advocates are working overtime to limit our supply of electricity. Glen Reynolds writes:

Why is it that greens want everyone to drive electric cars but don’t want people to have electricity? Or, it seems, the cars.

I noted last week in these pages how the people who want everyone to have an electric car in the garage have also been pursuing policies that, per the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s latest report, are likely to result in rolling blackouts this summer.

Fossil and nuclear plants are being taken offline (bye, Indian Point!) while their replacement with “renewables” like wind and solar lags and often fails to produce power when it’s most needed.

In a way, climate alarmists are this era's Luddites. They want all of us to have less—power, food, transportation, variety, farming, etc.—all in the name of "saving the planet" from their apocalyptic fantasies. 

Take the recent Canadian forest fires that blanketed the northeast USA in smoke for a few days last week. According to the alarmists and the propaganda media narrative (e.g., here) that supported them, there's nothing that climate change can't do—including forest fires.

No matter that the same activists who tell us the climate apocalypse is coming are the people who have used lawfare and compliant politicians to block logging that would thin forests and reduce the supply of carbon based-material (i.e., trees) that feed forest fires. No matter that progressive government has failed miserably at overall forest management including the creation of fire breaks, ground cover removal, and tree culling. No matter that forest fires have occurred for millions of years. No matter the the fires that occurred at least in part due to lawfare and mismanagement introduced more pollutants into the atmosphere than human activity introduces during a time period many times longer than the fire season.

No matter that virtually every one of the activists' predictions of catastrophe have failed to materialize. No matter that no one can accurately provide a quantitative indication of the degree to which human activity affects climate. No matter the climate changes has occurred for millions of years and that major climate changes are natural and driven by things others than human activities (there were no humans for 99.999 percent of pre-history. 

No matter!