Silver State Times

Critics claimed that President Joe Biden's green energy agenda and push for the manufacturing of electric vehicles (EVs) as the future of transportation is not viable.

As of July, only 2% of Americans own EVs, according to Kelley Blue Book. This poses a major issue in places like California, where the state is attempting to ban gasoline-powered cars.

"In reality, electric cars are driven less than half as much, which means they're much costlier per mile," Bjorn Lomborg said in a recent opinion piece/commentary in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). "In part, this is because electric cars are often a luxury item. Two-thirds of the households in the U.S. that own one have incomes exceeding $100,000 a year. For nine in 10 of electric-vehicle-owning households, it’s only a second car. They also have a gasoline-powered car — usually a bigger one, such as an SUV, pickup truck, or minivan — that they use for long trips, given its longer range."

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) is an advocate for the transition toward EVs. She posted on Twitter in February to advocate for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill – legislation aimed at EV infrastructure funding, among other measures.

"Glad to announce that $5.6 million I helped secure for electric-vehicle charging stations in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is coming to Nevada," she said in the Twitter post. "Our clean transportation sector is booming, promoting good-paying jobs across the state, and helping combat the climate crisis."

Cortez Masto in July voted in favor of the Democrat-led Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, according to Reuters. The act includes a new $4,000 tax credit for electric vehicle purchases.

EVs are only sometimes and somewhat better than gas-powered vehicles, Lomborg said in his opinion piece/commentary. Not only are they much more expensive, but during their lifetime, EVs emit a little less than half as much CO₂ as their alternative, estimates from the International Energy Agency said. 

"If every country achieved its stated ambitious electric-vehicle targets by 2030, the world would save 231 million tons of CO2 emissions," Lomborg said. "Plugging these savings into the standard United Nations climate panel model, that comes to a reduction of 0.0002 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century."

Rae Rosen pointed out in an opinion piece/letter to The Wall Street Journal that during hotter months, California residents are asked to reduce their electrical usage during certain hours of the day. They are also asked to reduce their electrical usage. The state is urging its residents to buy electric vehicles.

"How will we charge all these electric cars with such a massive increase in demand for electricity?" Rosen asked. 

Biden "set a goal of 50% electric vehicle sales by 2030, part of a broader effort to become zero-emissions economy-wide by 2050," according to The Guardian.

Lomborg noted that politicians across the country are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into EV efforts, keeping consumers from purchasing the cars they desire "for virtually no climate benefit."