Polich column on EV’s full of misinformation

The following column by RGF board member Julie Wright appeared in the Albuquerque Journal  on Saturday, January 13, 2024. It is in response to Judith Polich’s column in which she purported to clear up “EV disinformation.” 

Judith Polich’s columns can always be counted on for a slanted approach to the “climate crisis,” but her latest in which she purports to debunk “misinformation” on electric vehicles takes the cake. Her article is positively full of factual mistakes.

Policy claims that “EV’s have no emissions” but that is simply wrong. EV’s do not have tailpipe emissions, but they generate large amounts from their manufacture and especially all the materials (including rare earth) that go into the expensive batteries that make them go. Polich even admits her error in admitting that PNM is NOT using 100% “renewable” energy and won’t for more than a decade. And that’s if the ambitious energy transition goes smoothly.

But even “renewables” require battery backup, massive deployment of high-tension wires, and the manufacture and installation of solar panels or wind turbines. All of those activities currently and for the foreseeable future require traditional energy sources.

Polich does politely acknowledge the role of internal combustion vehicles in solving the horse manure problem. Undoubtedly, there were some holdouts, but internal combustion cars were clearly superior technology and have become dominant for more than 100 years. Government didn’t have to mandate their use (unlike the current situation with EV’s).

Speaking of subsidies, Polich notes that Biden’s infrastructure law purports to deploy 500,000 EV charging stations nationwide (at a cost of $7.5 billion to taxpayers). What she doesn’t note is that the law was passed in 2021 and the first charging station was just deployed in December.

Furthermore, EV’s are not new technology. In fact, EV’s and steam powered cars were commonplace at the time of Henry Ford. The internal combustion engine was better technology and it still is. In fact, the fuel efficiency of gas-powered cars gas powered cars has improved 35.4% in the Past 20 Years.

Air pollution from gas powered cars. According to the EPA, new gas-powered passenger vehicles are 98-99% cleaner for most tailpipe pollutants compared to the 1960s. Fuels are much cleaner—lead has been eliminated, and sulfur levels are more than 90% lower than they were prior to regulation. Efficiency continues to improve and even Polich and her personal choice of a gas hybrid provides further evidence for this.

Ultimately, electric vehicles may someday prove superior to gas cars, but even Polich tacitly admits that they aren’t close to replacing gas cars at this time. Those “opponents” Polich cites mostly oppose the mandates and massive subsidies being employed by Gov. Lujan Grisham and others to achieve their goal.