The gas isn’t greener on the other side

As a matter of fact, it’s downright ugly

Electric vehicles are all the rage, especially amongst those who claim an affinity for the environment, whether that affinity be in the form of combating climate change, eliminating the introduction of toxins into the environment, or any other particular goals. How green are they actually?

I recently wrote in another article about the misperception of purportedly green energy sources:

How green is green energy?

In that article, I discussed all that goes into making the equipment to provide so-called green energy, such as the manufacture of solar panels requiring semiconductor-grade silicon which is produced using components and processes that aren’t nearly as green as what people realize. Likewise in electric cars, parts that require silicon are present. The development of these is dependent upon coal and/or other petrochemical (fossil fuel) products (for further understanding of that, see the aforementioned article on green energy). EVs depend not only upon these same not-so-green products and processes, but there are other environmental impacts to the production and maintenance of these vehicles, and ultimately, disposal of their batteries that are overlooked by most who have been enamored by the facade of these supposedly ecologically amenable conveyances.

One of the first items of note with regard to EVs is the batteries. While the batteries are touted as the primary pollution preventers as opposed to those greenhouse-gas gushing, hydrocarbon hungry hulks the majority of people still drive, manufacturing those green power cells is quite destructive. Electric cars use lithium-ion batteries, very similar to the technology of the rechargeable batteries that power laptop computers, mobile phones, and other rechargeable electric and electronic devices. The main element required for the production of these power cells is, as I’m sure you’ve guessed, lithium. Lithium is an element that needs to be removed from the earth and refined in order to serve its purpose in rechargeable power packs. One major drawback is that lithium is not a renewable or sustainable resource. There is a limited amount of it (haven’t we heard that as an argument against fossil fuels?) and retrieving it from the earth isn’t exactly what most people would consider environmentally friendly. What? No one told us that!

Notice the protective gear for working with EV batteries

Here are the facts. Lithium itself is a hazardous material. Pure lithium is flammable (when it comes in contact with water, it releases flammable vapors) and corrosive (https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/3028194#section=Safety-and-Hazards). One article regarding lithium batteries relates the following:

Here’s a thoroughly modern riddle: what links the battery in your smartphone with a dead yak floating down a Tibetan river? The answer is lithium – the reactive alkali metal that powers our phones, tablets, laptops and electric cars.
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

South American lithium fields

There are myriad articles detailing the negative effects of lithium mining and battery production. Just a few of the direct negative impacts are:

• pollution of water sources

• increased carbon dioxide emissions (wait, aren’t EVs supposed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions?)

• use of millions of gallons of water needed normally used for drinking and farming

Rather than me detailing here all of the environmental problems created by mining lithium, a couple of pertinent articles can be found at the following links:

https://ecojungle.net/post/lithium-extraction-environmental-impact/

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/lithium-batteries-environment-impact

Lithium isn’t the only element needed for the batteries. Nickel and cobalt are also required for the manufacture of the batteries used in electric vehicles. Often cobalt is mined not only in an unsafe manner, but using child labor. “But…but…I never knew that children were involved in mining these things!” It is, unfortunately, true.

A child involved in the cobalt mining process

According to another article, which discusses a broader range of the impacts of the battery-making process, including the child labor involved in mining cobalt:

Where the batteries for EVs are made is also an important factor when considering their environmental impact. According to Forbes, batteries produced in China produce somewhere in the region of 60% more carbon dioxide than internal combustion engines. (emphasis in original)

https://interestingengineering.com/science/clean-evs-and-dirty-lithium-mining-business 

Lastly, most of the equipment used in the mining processes require (are you already guessing?) fossil fuels.

At this point, it almost seems as though just creating the batteries for these vehicles has enough negative impact on the environment to make EVs a non-starter. For most people, learning all of this might raise second thoughts. That hasn’t stopped our government, however, from continuing the push forward. If that wasn’t enough to change your mind, consider the casings for these batteries - they’re plastic or polymer which are derived from…wait for it….petroleum products. “But wait - isn’t the whole point of EVs to do away with our reliance on petroleum-based products?” If you think EVs will help do that, you’re in for a shocker. Not only would the housings for the batteries require the use of petroleum products, but other parts of the vehicle will as well. Any of the plastics in the vehicle are likely derived from petroleum sources, as are other components intended to lighten the weight of the car, such as carbon fiber It’s somewhat ironic that something intended to reduce your carbon footprint has components made from carbon, no? The tires also contain petroleum products.

According to Bridgestone:

While designs vary by product and manufacturer, an average tire contains well over 100 separate components. Tires can include natural rubber, synthetic rubber, steel, nylon, silica (derived from sand), polyester, carbon black, petroleum, etc. - https://www.bridgestoneamericas.com/en/company/safety/tires-101/tire-construction

Bridgestone also presents a page with “some of the rubber, chemical and structural materials used to make tires.” Among those are:

• “Synthetic rubber, which is a petroleum-based product, has heat-resisting properties.”

• “Carbon black increases the strength of rubber.” (“Carbon Black is virtually pure elemental carbon in the form of colloidal particles that are produced by incomplete combustion or thermal decomposition of gaseous or liquid hydrocarbons under controlled conditions.” - https://www.carbon-black.org/new-page-2 ; I recommend also reading their safety pages)

• “Oil softens rubber.”

• “Polyester is used as a material of body ply in passenger tires.” (polyester is a petroleum product)

https://www.bridgestone.com/products/basic_knowledge/materials/

All of this should be rather disturbing, and so far we’ve only covered the materials that go into making components for EV. Have you ever considered the energy expenditure in the manufacturing process for all of the components of a vehicle? Where do you think all of that energy comes from? It’s certainly not all solar- and wind-based. How about the lubricants used to keep the production lines moving? I bet you can guess from where those lubricants are derived.

That’s enough on manufacturing. Let’s move on to using and maintaining the vehicle. As with the production machines, in order to function properly, most (if not all) moving parts on the vehicle need to be properly lubricated. Perhaps you think synthetic oils or lubricants are the answer to the problem? “Synthetic oils are typically created from chemically modified materials such as petroleum components, but the base material is almost always distilled crude oil.” (https://www.caranddriver.com/research/a32879214/synthetic-oil/ )

What about the power to charge the batteries? From where does that originate? In a rather ironic twist, a VP from GM while showing off a Chevy volt could not answer that question specifically, but pointed to the local electric company. When a representative from that company was asked the same question, his answer was…coal. You can watch the video here:

Benny Johnson 🍊 @bennyjohnson

General Motors CEO virtue signaling how “clean” the new Chevy Volt is. Then a reporter asks where the charging electricity comes from. Oh my…. Wait for it. Awkward.

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Power to charge the vehicles also pose an interesting conundrum. Many states now suffer from struggling power grids, especially with the major push to move away from dirty electric power plants and toward supposedly green energy like solar and wind. In a state like California, where rolling blackouts are the norm during the summer because the state can’t generate enough electricity to handle the residents’ normal power consumption, how will people manage to charge their EVs? During the summer of 2022, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas has urged Texans to turn up the thermostat, and to avoid using large appliances and charging electric vehicles during the day due to capacity issues. How are people to live their lives if they can’t charge their cars to get around? Not to mention, the range on them is generally only a couple of hundred miles per charge, and I expect if you are stuck sitting in traffic (as is common in many parts of California), there is still a power drain, so a single charge may not last more than a couple of days depending on usage. That also is likely to cost the owner a lot in electricity; it could, potentially, cost even more than gasoline as even electricity rates have been rising rapidly over the past couple of years. And what do you do when you’re out and about and the charge gets low?

Another aspect of maintenance is the batteries themselves. Like all rechargeable batteries, those that power EVs have a limited lifespan. Depending on the source, it seems EV batteries may last somewhere between 10 and 20 years. If you are a somewhat frugal person, considering the high cost of an EV, there’s a good chance most people who purchase one will expect to keep it for more than ten years. This leads to three potential drawbacks:

1. Disposal - EV batteries are not easily recycled, so there will be environmental impact as they go into landfills (especially if chemicals from the batteries end up leaking)

2. Replacement cost - as a family recently found out when they purchased a used EV, replacement batteries are not cheap; in their case, the replacement batteries for the $11,000 used car they purchase were going to cost them another $14,000 (https://www.westernjournal.com/girls-electric-car-needs-new-battery-expensive-vehicle-gets-even-worse-news )

3. Availability - as that same family found out, replacement batteries are not readily available and there was at least a six month wait for the new cells.

All this, and electric cars are certainly no less expensive than cars sporting combustion engines. Yet Pete Buttigieg believes the high price of gas should be more incentive for people to purchase electric vehicles:

Make no mistake - electric vehicles are little more than an expensive virtue signal. They are no more green than gasoline-powered cars, nor is any aspect of such vehicles more renewable, and vilifying fossil fuels, the source of which is still just as necessary for electric vehicles, is damaging our economy as much as EV production damages the environment.