Hey, I've got a great idea! I can solve the fuel crisis: let's just legalize weed, so the people can forget about all of this stuff, while we communize everything and take away their freedoms!
Seems to be the logic of all the politicians these days... while they pretend to save the environment by stopping us from doing what they're doing themselves. Remember when the government governed, in stead of controlling? Uh, me neither!
Jokes aside, the fact is that regardless of the reality of matters, or the readiness of the grid, or the availability of resources, what the politicians say is what we have to do. Nobody cares whether you like the environment or not - you have bills to pay, so that means you have to get to work. ICE, EV, bicycle, walk, nobody cares how you get to work after the laws are signed. That's your own problem. The politicians aren't concerned with these things, because they don't work jobs. The taxes we pay from the jobs we work, pay them. If unemployment is high and they don't have enough money from the working people's tax-paying, the obvious solution is to raise taxes. The dedicated people will work as hard as necessary to provide for their loved ones, and the lazy people are lazy now, and will be lazy then, too.
Mind you, I'm all for electric vehicles - it's a prospect that has been explored since before the ICE as we know it was even invented. But there are legitimate reasons that it has been avoided for over 100 years, and much of that reason is the availability of resources. See, nobody cares how much of a resource exists, if that resource cannot be sold for money. You can't sell what nobody wants to buy. The fossil fuel industry is taxed extremely heavily, which makes the government rich. They can pretend to hate it all they like, but they love the money they get from it, and they need the money they get from it. If the electric vehicle industry becomes as foundational as the fossil fuel industry has, you can bet the government will get its hands on that as well, in the name of "efficiency", raise taxes on electricity... An improved infrastructure to sustain the new technology will merely shift the expended resource supply chain. Truck drivers driving electric trucks hundreds of miles to bring batteries to charge/swap stations will replace the gas trucks of to day. The average consumer will have no greater grasp on the environmental strain caused by mining for lithium (or whatever resource they'll even be using, by then) than he or she has on the environmental strain caused by drilling for oil. The real problem of pollution caused by energy production facilities will continue to be ignored, and the blame will always be on the independent drivers. Why? Because the politicians are not trying to obtain a cleaner environment. They're trying to get paid. Raising taxes on the people who drive, since most people with any significance to the economy drive, seems to be the easiest way to get paid.
Electric vehicles have shown themselves extremely useful in certain circumstances, with low vehicle traffic and high pedestrian traffic, low speeds, and low range. Consider golf carts, electric scooters, motorized wheel chairs, and so many other similar devices, which can be used in places where you'd never consider using an ICE just for noise and exhaust fumes. Does this less-intrusive physical presence mean that the infrastructure needed to support and sustain these vehicles is more efficient or safer for the environment? As sure as hell, not!
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