An Electric Skeptic

After flipping through the Chicago Tribune this week I was surprised to find that they had not one, not two, but three articles on electric vehicles. This surprised me because I had no idea how big this electric car movement really was. Granted I took notice to the absurd amount of Teslas that have been cruising around the north shore but I thought that was simply an isolated north shore trend. I was wrong. According to the Chicago tribune article “Charged battle over electric car stations”, 84 charging stations have been completed in the Chicagoland area with 46 more on the way. Another article by the Chicago Tribune's Robert Duffer reports that Tesla is undergoing a plan to enable electric coast-to-coast travel by the the end of the year. Musk has claimed that by 2015 he expects “98 percent of America to be within range of more than 200 superchargers planned for the U.S. and Canada”. The last article “An Electric Road Trip” reaffirms this trend by stating that, “Since it’s launch in June 2012, the [Tesla] Model S has captured 8 percent of the luxury performance market share”. Clearly, the electric car movement is gaining ground, and the U.S. government is helping it to do so.

The U.S. government is strongly incentivizing people to purchase electric vehicles. Electric vehicles are eligible for a tax credit up to $7,500, with additional incentives in several states. According to a report from the Congressional Budget Office, "the U.S. is on track to spend $7.5 billion on the rebates by 2019 with no effect on gas use or emissions".

Now one would assume that this is because the U.S. government wants to help the environment, but what if I told you there is a strong argument to show that Electric cars are not just as bad for the environment but even worse than some of their gas powered counterparts. In a recent npr broadcast, conservationist Ozzie Zehner argues this very point. He bases this argument by asking us to look at a car’s impact not simply based on gas mileage, but on their impact throughout their entire lifetime, from the manufacturing process, to the disposing of their dead batteries. One interesting point he makes says is, “American taxpayers give electric car buyer credits to buy vehicles as well as priority parking and free way lanes, even though there is really no evidence that they have done anything positive for the environment in return. It would make a lot more sense if we spent that money on infrastructure that benefits people from across the economic spectrum, such as public transit”. I think this is a great point and I would add that if the government truly wants to help the environment, they should offer a tax deduction for not owning a car. My old geography teacher Mr. Duell told me that when he was living in Japan they taxed anyone who wasn’t carpooling. I think that this could be another way that the U.S. government could reduce the number of cars on the road which would I think would have a much greater impact on the environment.

This makes me wonder if the reason behind incentivizing people to buy electric is truly focused on helping the environment. Could it be to help American car companies like Tesla and Chevy? Or could it be to decrease our dependence on foreign oil? I’m not saying that these are bad reasons I’m simply saying that like with nearly everything else our government subsidizes it seems like the main reasons why our government is supporting electric vehicles would have to be more economical than environmental.