But Where Does Electricity Come from, Pete?

Tom Finnerty30 Nov, 2021 2 Min Read
Coming to save your budget.

Ladies and Gentleman, "Mayor Pete" Buttigieg, United States Secretary of Transportation and, perhaps, the future face of the Democratic Party:

The Build Back Better legislation] contains incentives to make it more affordable to buy an electric vehicle, up to a $12,500 discount in effect, for families thinking about getting an E.V., families that, once they own that electric vehicle, will never have to worry about gas prices again.

Suffice it to say, I can't remember when I've heard a more brainless sentiment. Buttigieg can't possibly be this dumb, can he?

Maybe it's just that he's been given an impossible assignment -- talk up the increasingly unpopular Build Back Better plan while shifting blame on rising gas prices to combat the president's tanking poll numbers. He might as well be saying, 'Hey, if you people had bought an electric car, you wouldn't have to worry about gas prices right now! But no worries -- we've got a plan to give you a pile of money so you can fix that mistake. That's why pencils have erasers!"

Still, at the risk of asking some obvious questions: Where does Buttigieg think that electricity comes from? Does he not know that it is inextricably tied to the price of petroleum products? Here's David Harsanyi spelling that out for him:

Natural-gas prices have increased over 150 percent in a year’s time — with help from Biden-administration policy. More than 40 percent of our electricity is generated by natural gas.... Right now, fossil fuels are responsible for generating around 60 percent of our electricity — with nuclear, a source that Buttigieg now opposes, responsible for another 20 percent. The remaining 20 percent — often at tremendous up-front costs — is generated by renewable sources.

And as Harsanyi points out, "plugging your car into an outlet for 15 hours every night is going to cost plenty if Democrats get their way and make fossil fuels more expensive."

Even Buttigieg's reference to a $12,500 discount for people buying a new electric vehicle is ridiculous -- the average price difference between a new E.V. and a gas-powered car is $19,000! And that is on top of the significant tax-payer funded subsidies to the E.V. industry, enacted in the hope that it might one day be profitable on its own. It's farcical that even with this new subsidy embedded in BBB they're unable to close the gap.

All of which is to say -- Mayor Pete is trying to take you for a ride. Don't let him.

Tom Finnerty writes from New England and Ontario.

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2 comments on “But Where Does Electricity Come from, Pete?”

  1. I don't know about the rest of you, but each month the company that supplies MY HOME with electricity has the unmitigated gall to demand PAYMENT for such service!! I can neither see nor smell that electricity, but they insist I get it and use it! I do know it stops on occasion, but not due to non-payment! I wonder if Peter the Puffer thinks that electricity to recharge electric cars is just - FREE??? Where was the government to build all our gas stations? Why should WE pay for a recharging station for high dollar, subsidized vehicles? What about gas taxes that fund ROADS?? Why should heavy electric vehicles not share in the cost of ROADS and BRIDGES?? I like my electric lawn tools, but I don't expect my neighbor to give up his gas ones! I even have an old fashioned motorless reel mower. How long before CA demands those?? Electric vehicles are not the salvation nor even a good substitute for the majority! Maybe for the ELITES!

  2. At this point, the only economically viable solar wind project is a clothesline. Replacing every gallon of gas capacity with 250lbs of batteries is a morons dream. It would take 1 1/2 acres of solar panels to power a medium Bulldozer, for a few hours a day, or replace its 300 gallon fuel tank with 75,000 lbs of batteries. Dream on Puffer Pete.

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