The case against tax-payer funded subsidies for electric cars

By Tom Quiner

Should the federal government take your tax money and give it to someone else if they buy an electric car?
It is happening.
It is being done based on the assumption that global warming is real, man-made, and reversible through draconian green energy schemes.  Each is subject to debate within the scientific community, although each is accepted as an article of faith by liberals.
Liberals rail against crony capitalism (as they should) unless taxpayer money is going to green energy companies, such as Solyndra. Abound Solar. Beacon Power. Ener1. Energy Conversion Devices. Evergreen Solar, Inc. Mountain Plaza, Inc.Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsens Mills Acquisition Co. Range Fuels. Raser Technologies. Spectrawatt. Thompson River Power LLC. These are all “green energy” companies that took taxpayer money and filed for bankruptcy.
Now taxpayers are subsidizing electric cars up to $7500 per vehicle in the name of liberals’ green energy religion.
Setting religion, economics and crony capitalism aside, is this a good idea from an environmental perspective?  Not according to environmental activist, Bjorn Lomborg. Mr. Lomborg is director of the Copenhagen Consensus and author of “The Skeptical Environmentalist.”
He is certainly no “global warming denier.” In fact, Mr. Lomborg does believe global warming is taking place. Even more, he does believe it is caused by man. But even more, he does not think it poses apocalyptic problems for mankind, and besides, the cost to reverse it is economically impractical.
All this leads to the electric car.  He says the electric car is bad for the environment.  You read that right.  A 2012 study about the environmental efficacy of the electric car appeared in the Journal of Industrial Ecology.  Writing in the Wall Street Journal, here is what the study revealed, says Lomborg:

“If a typical electric car is driven 50,000 miles over its lifetime, the huge initial emissions from its manufacture means the car will actually have put more carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere than a similar-size gasoline-powered car driven the same number of miles. Similarly, if the energy used to recharge the electric car comes mostly from coal-fired power plants, it will be responsible for the emission of almost 15 ounces of carbon-dioxide for every one of the 50,000 miles it is driven—three ounces more than a similar gas-powered car.”

In other words, with current technology, the electric car is worse for the environment than a vehicle fueled by gasoline.
If you are an environmental activist, it is imperative that you contact your Congressman today and demand that they stop subsidizing electric cars.