The Biden Thing’s TelePrompter says “Car and truck manufacturers have made clear that the future of transportation is electric.”
And then this: “The market is moving.”
The market?
The bum’s rush toward a battery-powered future is as much about the “market moving” as Deliverance is a love story.
That there is no market for these battery-powered devices is of course precisely why it is necessary for the apparatchik class – the bureaucrats and office-holders who live outside its discipline – to countermand the market’s inclinations. If that were not pravda, then the “proposed rules” (as they are blandly styled) that will serve to out-regulate cars that aren’t battery-powered devices would be as unnecessary as “proposing rules” requiring that people sleep on mattresses rather than the floor.
But they are very necessary – when your intent is to force people to sleep on the floor.
Thus the new rules:
“EPA estimates that by 2032, if finalized, the proposed rules could result in electrification of 67 percent of new sedans, crossovers, SUVs, and light trucks; 50 percent of new vocational vehicles (such as buses and garbage trucks); 35 percent of new short-haul freight tractors; and 25 percent of new long-haul freight tractors.”
Italics added.
No, they will result. Which is exactly the result when the “market” is prohibited from doing its thing.
Markets are not precisely predictable. You never know what will happen. The ebb and flow of demand and supply; the vagaries of individual wants and needs of buyers and sellers meeting agreeably as they arise, in a manner that ends up profiting both.
This is intolerable – from the standpoint of the apparatchiks – especially as regards the market’s unpredictability.
The apparatchiks like predictability, as planned by themselves.
One can almost see them standing stolidly atop Lenin’s tomb, waving stiffly at the crowd.
They have decided that “the future of transportation is electric.” Period. There will be no discussion. There will be no alternatives – which is another way of saying, there will be no market.
Also no innovation as that has little value in an economic system that is governed by . . . rules. For what incentive is there to think outside the box, to come up with something different and better – when the latter doesn’t conform to the rules?
One might as well play Bach for the benefit of a cinder block.
There have been some oppositional murmurings, as for example this from O.H. Skinner of the Alliance for Consumers: “With this new set of proposals, the Biden administration is setting out to use the power of government as a weapon to remove from the market the gas-powered trucks and cars that everyday consumers rely on, in favor of the kinds of cars that are most popular in liberal bastions.”
But in truth the time for opposition was at least half a century ago, when the apparatchiks first began to tentatively assert their prerogative over the market. It began innocently, or so it appeared at the time. Who could object to rules requiring that all new cars come equipped with seat belts, for instance? Such a small cost – and such a minor imposition.
But because it wasn’t objected to – in principle – the apparatchiks made subsequent “proposals,” each expanding upon the precedent, each one progressively more costly and intrusive. We went from a pair of lap belts to six or eight air bags in the relative blink of an eye. It happened because almost no one challenged the right of the apparatchik-class to impose these costs and impositions, which have waxed ever since.
If you accept the idea that the apparatchicks have the moral right to make you buy (and wear) a seatbelt then you have accepted their right to make you buy a battery-powered device rather than a car.
Or to walk, if the device is beyond your means.
This apotheosis, more than 50-years-in-the-making, was eminently foreseeable – for those with eyes to see it. Those of us who did see were frequently abused as hysterics, surfers of the slippery slope. But two-plus-two always equals four and once you set the equation in motion, the sum is not in question.
We let them do this to us.
Just as we let them “lock us down” and put “masks” over our faces and whatever was in those needles in so many arms. They are feeling their oats now, no longer restrained by any dread of exposure or consequences. They will do to us what they want to do to us – as the man holding the shotgun on John Voight did in Deliverance.
Maybe – if we are lucky – there will be a compound bow arrow of deliverance streaking from the depths of the forest. But at the end of the day, it’s always been up to us to refuse to squeal like a pig.
And so far, not enough of us have.
. . .
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Vehicles have not been what we thought they were, as compared to the “Old” ones we grew up with. Oh the new ones look pretty and the owners love being seen in them. But when you try and get out of them what the old version had to give, well, Smitty, it just ‘aint there.
Case in point. An old friend arrived at my place to take possession of a 1968 Chevy half-ton truck that I gave him. He arrived in his new Ram (no not “Dodge” but RAM – just try and find parts for a late model Dodge truck in a parts book without looking under RAM). She was sweet I have to say. 2019, half-ton and 4wd version, and sporting a 5.7 liter Hemi V8 all backed up by that turn-a-knob 8 speed automatic transmission they fit to them. She had big-ass stock tires mounted on even more big-ass stock wheels and looked the part of the twenty-buck hooker you had to wait in line for because she had THE LOOKS.
He was pulling a twin axle car trailer. It was nothing like my Shop Twin Axle Heavy Duty, tilt bed (made in USA) trailer that I have pulled everything from a Jaguar E-Type to my entire shop, including heavy above ground twin-post hoists. It was built for the weight and my old 1988 Chevy Silverado pulls it with no problems, all while not showing any squat at the rear end from the weight and all with STOCK suspension (no upgrades).
No, he had a nice light (read that no heavy duty springs on those twin axles), made in China, cheep-ass trailers. Oh, hooked up to the truck it all looked very impressive and capable! That is till we loaded the trailer with the old Chevy truck. Well that nice, soft riding truck of his took a squat to the back end that was so bad he almost could not pull out of my dirt lot. Actually, the darn thing left a nice skid mark at the hitch point where it dragged the dirt.
Well, as you already guessed, he was unable to tow back to AZ like he had planned. The thing was all over the road trying to just keep 50mph up. It was so dangerous that that trailer went back home to AZ, empty, after leaving the cargo at his son-in-law’s place in town (perfect project for the kid so no big loss).
My point is the truck looked big-ass and capable. Heck, I grew up with the word “Hemi” and we all lived to have a chance to drive or even own one. But that engine was useless without a suspension under that truck which would take the load that the engine would have easily of pulled.
I fix cars for a living (50 years, my own shop) so I sent him some info on an upgrade package to allow him to tow AND have a nice soft ride when he wasn’t towing. He was actually pretty hurt that what he had that looked like it would do the job with no problem, couldn’t. He paid all that money for a pretty truck – with weak knees.
Electric cars? Electric TRUCKS? Don’t make me laugh. These guys are just wackin’ off
Thanks Eric
Morning, Doc!
I tell people the story – the true story – about what happened when I tried to pull about half the rated weight with the electric F-150. The truck drove well enough with the trailer hooked up. But adding two tons-plus to the truck’s three-tons empty curb weight did for the range what eating a a Chinese buffet every night does to your arteries – just more immediately and obviously.
I think it would be interesting to do a real-world experiment with an EV truck in these parts. For real world people doing real world things this time of year.
Hook up a trailer with two snow machines on the back (as we still have snow up here), and head 90 miles to the next Junction-where there are gas stations and places to eat, of course. Let’s say it is a nicer, zero degrees out, so of course you are going to want to have the heater on to keep the cabin warm. I would bet the damned thing would not make it halfway there before it puked out. At least with a gas guzzling, Ford F-150 (and there are plenty up here) you can fill up at the 90 mile marker where there are the gas stations, and then keep going. An EV truck is just going to get you stranded in BFE. And up here when it gets cold and dark, that can get you killed. Or maybe that is the whole point.
Love your wit and insight Eric, but you have to goto the next step and call out the obvious. Quite correctly you point out regularly that the EV mandate isn’t going to improve total carbon emissions (not that it matters). This is all about NO cars in the future. It is so obvious. Stop worrying about looking like Alex Jones….AJ is the man. Quit trying to steal second while keeping one foot on first base
Martin Armstrong has a post up about the EPA’s draconian emissions rules for gas vehicles….We’ve heard endlessly for years that coal mining was DIRTY, and yet, not a peep about the MASSIVE mining that would be required to obtain the rare minerals necessary for the Biden Thing’s plan for MASS adoption of EVs…..
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/climate/let-them-drive-evs/
Meanwhile the real market continues to give electric cars the middle finger……..
Meanwhile billions of dollars of once real wealth is wasted on battery projects that will never make money.
Biden and his ilk have no idea what a “market” actually is. It ain’t moving towards electric, if anything it peaked and is now moving away. The real market wants automakers to put back the V8’s and V6’s in vehicles that need them rather than those little turbos.
‘Meanwhile billions of dollars of once real wealth is wasted on battery projects that will never make money.’ — richb
During the inflationary blowout of the late 1970s, numerous industrial companies thought it would be a timely move to buy into the rough-and-tumble mining business, then experiencing boom times.
Likewise, at the dawn of the personal computer era, oil giant Exxon Mobil thought it would be a bright idea to invest in Vydec, which made the dedicated (thus already obsolete) word processors used in its offices.
And so on. Needless to say, all these ill-considered punts produced only red ink as business and inflationary cycles turned south in the early 1980s.
Those misguided corporate capers of forty years ago were the fault of CEOs caught up in the Bubble Baloney of the time.
By contrast, today’s Battery Baloney is gov-sponsored from the get-go. Thus, battery plant malinvestment will do enormously more economic damage — probably to the point of bankrupting some corporate victims who are currently patting themselves on the back for getting on the free-money gravy train. [Lookin’ at you, Jim Farley.]
But the losses to follow will flow entirely to their own income statements, as Big Gov lugubriously tut-tuts its loveless pity for jobs lost and businesses ruined. No one could possibly have foreseen such a bad, sad outcome! /sarc
To quote the Biden Thing, it appears “The market is also moving” to get mRNA vaccines into food, particularly MEAT…..
https://www.theorganicprepper.com/mrna-vaccines-in-meat/
I read that John, and also from other, alternate media sites, as well. When I was at the grocery store this week, I asked the guy at the meat counter about it, and he had no clue whatsoever about it, and had no idea what I was talking about. Even the mRNA stuff seemed beyond his grasp. Good grief, we are all screwed. Well, maybe I put the bug in his ear, so that when this mRNA comes down the pipeline, he will remember the screwy shopper who asked him such an equally, seemingly screwy question about it. The problem is, even if we start growing our own food, having our own wells, all they are going to have to do is spray it over us, and it will contaminate our land and well water. Either way, they are damned determined to get this sh** into us…one way or another. With our consent or not.
Shadow,
Not only that, I read an editorial yesterday that even though “Joe Biden” signed a bill ending the “COVID Public Health Emergency” earlier this week, his regime wants to send MORE money to Big Pharma for making future COVID jabs (Because the existing ones worked sooooooooooooo well I guess), and possibly even implement what someone called “Operation Warp Speed 2.0” to get it done.
Remember what Bill Gates said years ago, right after COVID hit. He gleefully stated that another pandemic worse than COVID would be coming. This is the same guy that thinks there are too many people in the world, and wants to use vaccines to depopulate the world down to 500 million. Globalists and psychopaths like him cannot help themselves: They will tell you ahead of time what they are going to do, knowing that few are listening. So although COVID maybe “over”, something else is in the pipeline for us. And a “vaccine” all ready, too. The Feds saw that Americans bent over like stupid sheep, masked up, vaxxed up, and let the country get destroyed for two-plus years over a nothing burger. They know good and well Americans never learn, and will meekly obey again, especially for those who have kids who have to be fed. The problem is, everything has been burned down and destroyed, so things are going to get even more interesting in the years ahead. So a 2.0 COVID emergency might actually entail something else entirely. Maybe a weaponized Marburg virus, or a weaponized Ebola virus? With the way they play god in the lab, I shutter to think as to what they have cooked up.
Shadow,
Yes, Bill Gates did say another pandemic was coming. Oddly enough, he also wrote a book on how to prevent it. However, the only expertise I’m aware of that he ever had was in computers and computer software, NOT medical issues or human health.
Aaah yes, ironic is it not? Gates is no doctor, but he sure as hell wants to be everyone’s MD. There is that joke that floats around, that Gates could not even keep viruses out his computers. What makes anyone think he could keep people safe from them?
Shadow,
A group called Five Times August made a good music video about Bill Gates not too long ago called “Gates Behind the Bars”. It can be found on YouTube.
OT, I guess, but here’s ivermectin Joe’s take on tranny beer.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/joe-rogan-drinks-bud-light-laughs-off-partnership-goofy-dylan-mulvaney-gives
The guy is a 100% narrative enforcer. In his opinion, so called, trannies no big deal. He’s an “ally.” Har har.
Eric,
People didn’t push back decades ago, because there were real problems with auto safety and air pollution that needed to be solved; IOW, there was an obvious pretense for Uncle to do what it did. For example, I flew out to CA a few times during the 1980s, and the LA smog was so bad that, until you were less than 2,000 feet above ground, you could not SEE the ground-on a bright, clear day, no less! The smog was thick enough to cut with a chainsaw. Clearly, something had to be done about that, yet the automakers did nothing air pollution until they compelled to do so.
That brings me to a problem with libertarianism, per se. Companies and businesses will oftentimes fail to do the right thing when it comes to safety; greed gets in the way. For example, Ford knew about the Pinto’s exploding gas tank, and they could’ve fixed it. They HAD the fix for that! Why didn’t they fix the gas tank? Because the fix would’ve added a few dollars production cost to each Pinto; spread out over thousands of cars, that’s real money. In a cold, calculating decision, Ford rolled out the Pinto with the exploding gas tank, as it meant millions more for the executives who allowed it. I could go on, but you get my point.
Another problem with liberianism taken to the extreme is anarchy. Given what’s happened over the last 3 years, I can no longer argue against anarchy; I can get why people argue in favor of anarchy. Unfortunately, on a practical level, anarchy simply means that the strongest warlord or Mafia don will be in charge en lieu of a formal gov’t; the strongest warlord or Mafia don will call the shots. While our gov’t sucks, at least we have nominal elections to determine who our leaders are; with anarchy, we don’t! Is that any better than what we have? Sure, the warlord or Mafia don doesn’t pretend to be serving the people, but is that any better for the regular people like us?
Finally, even classic libertarianism holds the position that gov’t should protect our lives, liberty, and property. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that the gov’t can and should see that businesses DON’T do as Ford did, and foist dangerous products upon us? You know, products like the Pinto?
I don’t know; I’m just thinking out loud here. Decades ago, there were real problems with cars that needed to be solved; in terms of safety and air pollution, there were real problems. Anyone who spent any time out in Los Angeles during the 1980s could tell you that there was an air pollution problem. Given the track record of businesses and corporations, one has to ask if they’d have solved these problems on their own accord. I don’t know.
I think that the real problem here is a spiritual problem, which leads to a moral problem. James Madison, father of the COTUS, said that our Constitution was only for a moral and religious people, and that it was unsuitable to the governance of any other. That’s the real problem here. Other than a mass revival and turning back to the Lord our God, I don’t see how we fix this…
I do not believe it is up to the government to “protect” our liberty. That is why we have the Second Amendment in the first place, because the Forefathers knew the U.S. government would go crooked one day, and that ordinary people would need to be able to defend themselves. Also, I think Americans (in general) suffer from a serious, “it cannot happen” here mindset. They think the U.S. is just too damned special to suffer anything. Until they wake up one day in a FEMA camp somewhere starving to death, standing in line at the guillotine, because they, too, like the Jews in WW2, did not think it could happen to them. I do believe the problems are moral and spiritual, but think this country is too far gone to fix them. It is one thing to have practical, safety standards on vehicles and have clean air. But, as Lord Action said, “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. Americans have refused to reign in this corrupt government that has amassed way too much power and control for itself, and this is what we have wrought on ourselves.
Concern troll. That’s the term folks used to characterize your type of “arguments” in comment sections not that long ago. Still accurate in my opinion.
Marky,
Firstly, from what I’ve read, I’m not sure the Pinto was any more dangerous than similar cars of the time, and any producer with do some kind of cost/benefit analysis of its products’ features and arrive at some kind of equilibrium. Sometimes that might result in a faulty or dangerous product. But such products quickly earn reputations, and possibly amass lawsuits, and manufacturers would like to avoid those.
Also, even now, there is at least one car club dedicated to the Pinto. Some people actually like the car, gas tank problems be damned.
In regards to 1980s air pollution: Even libertarians might consider the emission of noxious gasses in certain settings to be “aggression”. People in such a setting (like a large city) might organize and agree to take action against those who emit such gasses, or even simply launch an information campaign, and good citizens of such a place might spend a few more dollars on something that emits less of such gasses in order to do a good deed, or, at least, obtain a less malodorous vehicle. This would not violate the Non-Aggression Principle, and would create a market demand. Due to the large number of drivers in such places, auto makers might decide to offer vehicles that emit less noxious gasses, and eventually things change and the smog decreases.
Whether you call those who organize and take action to reduce noxious emissions “government” is up to you. One thing should always be true, however: The first thing that should be done is to convince people to voluntarily change by making cogent arguments.
Now consider people in places that aren’t population dense. Forcing manufacturers to produce items needed solely to alleviate city problems makes those in rural areas pay for those problems. But that’s exactly what LA and California are often so happy to do. Same thing with numerous items and actions that cause problems in high population densities, but are no problem elsewhere. The use of firearms, for example. Forcing such wishes via laws on other people who have no fault IS a violation of the NAP.
“Another problem with liberianism taken to the extreme is anarchy.”
No more to any point than “another problem with authoritarianism is that taken to the extreme, it is tyranny.”. I’d always rather suffer the problems attending too much liberty than those attending too little. Also, if a Mafia Don or warlord takes control of your society, it’s no longer anarchy, is it?
Just my 2 cents.
Those are interesting points. WRT anarchy, my only point is that, sooner or later, the strongest warlord or Mafia don will sooner or later take charge. Anarchy cannot be a permanent state any more than pluralism can be; it is but a transition between one state to another.
The big difference between Mafia dons and warlords, and the state is that the former will not destroy the golden goose. The Psychopaths In Charge of the state will not hesitate to do so, since all they have to do is print up some more dollars, instead of relying on the newly deceased golden goose. Better to be governed by self interested despots than crusaders for “the common good”, who will never rest. Not that being governed is ever a good thing.
“Unfortunately, on a practical level, anarchy simply means that the strongest warlord or Mafia don will be in charge”
So… basically what we already have today. And that’s your worst case scenario.
Not quite, as we can nominally vote for our gov’t officials. You don’t get to vote for a warlord or Mafia don; it’s whomever is stronger.
Governors Matt Bevin and Kari Lake would like word with you.
And so does President Bolsonaro.
The Pinto was a Volvo on steroids compared to the safety of a Tesla that your beloved government is trying to push on us.
Horst, you missed my point entirely…
Despite the endless propaganda about wind power being “clean” & even “renewable”, a group that actually looked at wind power came to an entirely different conclusion….
https://www.thegwpf.org/content/uploads/2023/03/Allison-Wind-energy.pdf
A group called the Global Warming Policy Foundation put together a report outlining how much this push for a “Net Zero Economy” could cost Americans…..If the Biden regime gets their wet dream of NET ZERO energy, it could cost Americans MORE than $50 TRILLION….
https://www.thegwpf.org/publications/net-zero-could-cost-americans-more-than-50-trillion-new-paper-warns/
“Market.”
They keep using that word. It does not mean what they think it means.
The invisible hand does not work that way. Just because they are pretending they don’t have their thumb on the scales does not mean it isn’t there. And the mask is slipping.
Of interest:
“As a miner for 40 years I have worked in various mines around the world. Gold, platinum, copper, coal, lead, zinc, oil and salt. I’m going to tell you something, and here it is. We will destroy the earth in the name of “Green Energy” Follow along and I will explain.”
https://twitter.com/JohnLeePettim13/status/1614178348694904837?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Ah, yes. The market will now be moving to a tiny little apartment 6 feet underground.
One more time… Vehicular Sanctuary States!
The rebuke of federal law is holding with pot. I hear the Az legislature passed a law allowing the use of silencers in this state. That would have been positively wunderbar, as it would allow me plenty of target practice without disturbing my neighbors. Not that they care much, but sometimes their animals do.
Alas, the bill was vetoed by our Governor Select, the cowardly Katie Hobbs. The reason stated? You guessed it. Saaaafety! Arizona would’ve been less safe, you see, if firearms were less ear splitting.
But it does show that legislatures the nation over are passing laws that contradict federal law. Good. Now for the vehicular regulations.
BaDnOn,
Oregon’s new Queen, Tina Kotek, and the Democrat majority in the state legislature are using the same excuse of “Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaafety” for trying to shove draconian anti-gun bills down Oregonian’s throats.
Hey John,
I feel for much of the state of Oregon, being at the mercy of the coastal cities. I hope the Greater Idaho plan comes to fruition one day, though I know it’s not likely.
BaDnOn,
There is a State Senator who brought up the “Greater Idaho” plan in the legislature, so they’re well aware of it, and some counties already voted in favor of it. A similar movement, called the “State of Jefferson”, has been around for something like 80 years and never went anywhere.
There’s also someone in my family who wants to MOVE to a different state, but I don’t, as I consider it home, having been BORN in Oregon. Not only that, but from what I’ve read, there are even some “red states” that have questionable ideas that some would consider “anti liberty”, such as Tennessee’s plan to use eminent domain against black farmers for Ford to build an EV factory, or bills in Wyoming to effectively implement medical tyranny.
It is getting to the point there is nowhere left to run, John. Even in once-nice states like Montana, stupid California liberals invaded 30 years ago, and is now purple. Everytown for Gun Safety gives them a solid “F”, but they are running out of water. Colorado, same thing where the California liberals are concerned, as my friends there say they have ruined Denver & Bolder. Alaska? looong Winters, cold and dark, and I expect Russia to come over here anytime, with the way Biden is pissing Putin off. If one moves, you are going to really, really have to do your home work ahead of time, and figure out which states have not been ruined before you go. Otherwise, you are just trading one bad state, for a maybe not-as-bad one. Hmm, kind of sounds like our elections, and our Uni-Party.
There are still states like WV (where I live), and OK
“. . .the apparatchiks asserted. . .that all new cars come equipped with seat belts.”
So why did society allow this to happen? Were they just stupid, or did they really believe that seat belts would save lives? Perhaps they thought that govt should be vested with the power to (cringe) help keep us safe? The answer should be obvious to most here. . . it was none of those.
I was still a very young puppy when seat belt laws were enacted in the mid-60’s yet I realized years later that the general public was living in a world of naive innocence back in those days. No one would ever have thought to question the actions of our highly esteemed elected leaders (ok ok, there were some) or possibly contemplate that they might be trying to pull a fast one. The country was still living in that long gone era of Leave it to Beaver. We were living the life of Norman Rockwell and the Saturday Evening Post. Roosevelt had led us to victory over the Nazis & Nips and Ike led us to an almost unimaginable economic prosperity during the 50’s. We honored, respected, and revered the country’s leaders, and why the hell not? Why would they possibly do something so despicable as to threaten that perfect Americana way of life? It would have been unthinkable back then.
Personally I give society a pass on this one. I think they deserve a Mulligan as they really didn’t have the suspicions or warning signs we have today which are so obvious. No, I think all the blame goes to those traitorous scumbags that people elected & entrusted their best interest with. They believed these Benedict Arnolds would do what was right for the country and follow the founder’s & their Constitution. If they only could have known. . .
And this gets me to my point. Who polices the police? Answer, nobody. . . and that’s the problem.
Trusted their leaders? After FDR confiscated their Gold at below wholesale price? After the Federal Reserve act that has destroyed our money? The difference between then and now is the internet. ABC, CBS, and NBC were not about to do anything to expose the fraud. Eric Peters is.
Finally, Europeans May Be Rejecting The EV Kool-Aid
You may not know it if you rely solely on American media, but there is a growing revolt across much of Europe against Net Zero mandates in general and electric vehicle mandates in particular.
Two months later, though, the new Meloni government in Italy began to raise objections. The forced transition to EVs has already hit the Italian auto industry with job cuts, leading Transport Minister Matteo Salvini to argue that it makes no sense to put thousands of jobs at risk when there are plenty of reasons to keep ICE vehicles on the road with a carbon-neutral fuel.
Italy’s balking opened the door for German Finance Minister Christian Lindner to switch his government’s position to demand an exception for hydrogen-derived, carbon-neutral synthetic e-fuels (produced by electrolysis with added carbon) that can power ICE vehicles. Porsche, which has invested $75 million in a pilot plant to make e-fuels, and Ferrari could preserve their rich heritage and iconic models and still comply with zero-emissions requirements with e-fuels.
German Transport Minister Volker Wissing agreed, stating that, “We need e-fuels as there is no alternative if we want to operate our vehicle fleet in a climate-neutral way. Whoever is serious about climate-neutral mobility must keep all technological options open and also use them. I don’t understand this fight against the car and why people want to ban some technologies.”
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has long objected to the EU ban and had pledged to do “anything” to stop the “pseudo-green idea by rich countries and bureaucrats from Brussels” to ban gasoline and diesel engines. Polish families, he contended, cannot afford these expensive vehicles, and an ICE ban would cause Polish firms producing car components for well-known global brands to suffer irreparable harm.
Finally, Europeans may be waking up to the realities of Chinese domination of the EV market and their attempted takeover of the European [and American] auto industry as well. The largest British auto dealership, Pendragon, has agreed with Chinese EV manufacturer BYD to sell its cars in the United Kingdom.
According to Ben Marlow, the Telegraph’s chief city commentator, the Chinese plan is to flood Europe with their own cheaper EV models to undercut European automakers and increase their market share. Not only does China control the market for many EV components, the Beijing government has thrown billions of dollars in subsidies to its EV industry. 80% of lithium batteries come from china and most of the key components for EV’s come from china….china has also taken over the ice car parts market…
And as Italy’s Matteo Salvini so eloquently put it, EU countries need to avoid “giving China entire industries and hundreds of thousands of jobs.”
brandon is ccp so will give the entire auto industry to china….
the ccp/wef are the control group so it makes sense for them to transfer the remaining 20% of the world’s manufacturing left they don’t have to china ….the first 80% was given to them by marxists running the west as reparations because the west was too successful…..just use the CO2 plant food is bad excuse…lol
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/finally-europeans-may-be-rejecting-ev-kool-aid
I don’t like this approach of trying to save ICE vehicles by arguing for their relevance in the presence of carbon neutral fuels. There’s nothing wrong with traditional fuels.
Carbon neutral fuels are idiotic from an energy standpoint. The prototype plants produce them from CO2 from the air (or from power plants), and tons of energy. You need loads of heat for the Fischer Tropsch process, and loads of energy to separate CO2 from the other gases, concentrate it, pressurize it, etc. You put an enormous amount of energy into it. When you burn the zero carbon fuel in a car, your energy efficiency, all-in is horrifically worse than just using the energy to charge an EV. The upside is that you get a better car with an ICE, so maybe that’s worth the massive tradeoff in energy efficiency.
If you care about green transportation, pragmatically, you want hybrids. Those need ICE engines. They’re cleaner than EV’s and gasoline cars.
OppositeLock,
I’ve been long a proponent of synthetic fuels, though producing them from atmospheric CO2 is, at this time, too inefficient for the primetime.
But producing them from biomass is quite the possibility, and some areas receive plenty of sunlight which can be used for a solar thermal approach to the heat necessary for Fischer-Tropsch. The biomass itself can be used to produce heat.
Yes, it’ll all be carbon-neutral, and that will be an in-your-face approach to the ostensible environmental lobby. This will also force The Powers to reveal their true purposes. I intent to prove that these synthetic fuels can be efficiently produced, and actually be less expensive that their Earth-extracted counterparts.
Yeah, I guess it would be a net benefit. Even horribly inefficient synthetic fuel of this nature is carbon neutral, so they can’t use their CO2 argument against it and would have to simply admit it’s to keep the masses from traveling.
If only we could have those prophesied fusion reactors, then the efficiency wouldn’t matter much.
Just 10 years away, OL! (For the rest of our lives)
The issue the Europeans, Americans, Asians and whoever else is: Co² does not control the weather. It never has and instead of spending the 15 minutes or so it would take to prove this, those opposing forces spend their efforts presenting the economics or feasibility of reducing this trace gas essential for life on Earth.
CO2 comprises 0.033% of Earth’s atmosphere; IOW, it’s a trace gas, at best.
The sexed-up drive/campaign to go all EV is like having an uncontrollable desire to date Caitlyn Jenner.
You’d think women would laugh and point at the stupid shit.
Did have one client that wore women’s underwear, so there are those who do have a diffused concept of what they are, don’t know if the abnormal psyche is the problem or just plain genetics. The cat had one piercing set of eyes. You made sure he got his meds. A damaged psyche with no hope of rehabilitation, what you have.
There are people in this world who are in need of constant supervision, they need help no matter what, have to be institutionalized.
The White House has a resident that fits the description.
When you are driving your EV, think pink elephants. Might as well drink to oblivion by then.
GM’s plan is to sell uber expensive ICE mini-monster pickup trucks in order to pay for its transition to all EeeeeVeees. Because climate change, errr… public health.
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/13/gm-chevy-silverado-hd-lineup-adds-zr2-model.html
From link:
The company declined to disclose exact pricing for the new ZR2 pickups, saying they will be “aspirational but attainable.” The current Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2 starts at about $74,000 for a comparable model. GM also currently offers a Z71 off-road package of the large HD truck that can easily top $80,000.
The HD ZR2 trucks will be offered exclusively in the 2500 four-door crew cab configuration. The standard 6.6-liter V8 gasoline engine will produce 401 horsepower and 464 foot-pounds of torque. A 6.6-liter Duramax turbo-diesel with 445 horsepower and 910 foot-pounds will also be available. GM said diesel is expected to make up a majority of the sales, like it does for current HD models.
——
This strategy seems really strange and contradictory to me.
Here is another prime example of squeezing blood from a turnip:
For employers in Virginia, you have been warned:
https://humaninterest.com/learn/articles/virginiasaves-state-sponsored-retirement-program/
Thanks to Northam and Company we now have this bemouth to deal with. How many employers will choose to drop their employee size below 25 now? Employers have to enroll employees and then the employees have to tell the state if they wish to opt out. They are going to force you to “save.” How convenient for the state to be able to control this.
Where is Youngkin in this? Who the hell knows.
The IRS is working on something like this as well….forced savings. Pay attention to what your state legislature is doing – it doesn’t matter if they are red or blue they all have sticky fingers.
“no one challenged the right of the apparatchik-class to impose these costs and impositions”
“If you accept the idea that the apparatchicks have the moral right”
“you have accepted their right”
Government does not have rights. It has powers and authority. Of course I understand your meaning Eric, but there is a difference.
Walter Williams once made a simple and clear definition a right. I’ll paraphrase, “The exercise of my rights puts no burden upon anyone else.” No one is required to give you a platform for your right of free speech. No one is required to supply you with arms to satisfy your right to keep and bear those arms. No one is required to build you a church for your freedom of religion. Etc.
What the state has done most clearly WILL put a burden on all of us. One we are unable to carry.
Well-said, John –
I ought to know better, too.
It’s OK Eric, I learn something from you nearly every day,
Mr. Kable,
That’s an excellent quote, and I’ll keep it in my thoughts!
‘almost no one challenged the right of the apparatchik-class to impose these costs and impositions’ — eric
Car Makers Don’t Love EPA’s EV Plan, says a MarketWatch headline this morning.
Really? How much ‘don’t love’ do you see in these quoted statements:
“GM supports economy-wide efforts to address climate change including a drive towards an all-electric future and improving the efficiency of our fleet.
“Complementary policies like permitting reform and support for domestic investments in manufacturing, supply chain and charging infrastructure are needed to help accelerate investments and adoption.” — GM
“Ford is leading the way as the global auto industry makes an unprecedented transformation to the electric vehicle era. We’re making popular and exciting EVs and investing heavily in U.S. battery and EV production.
“Accelerating this historic transition requires strong coordinated action from the public and private sectors.” — Ford
https://archive.ph/8sgJA#selection-355.0-397.372
These are the friendly barks of abject lapdogs, cheerfully licking their master’s hand.
Who needs their crap? Wouldn’t you rather drive a Whirlpool or a Maytag or an Electrolux?
GM, babbling about ‘climate change,’ particularly deserves a ‘Ceaușescu Christmas’ instant goodbye. Worthless Wokesters.
And this little gem from Steve Sailer
https://www.unz.com/isteve/biden-demands-2-3rd-of-new-vehicles-be-electric-by-2032-where-will-they-be-charged/
… and we have tax liftoff:
‘In December, the [Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities] approved a $400 million plan that will allow utilities to place a surcharge on electric bills to fund the installation of tens of thousands of EV chargers. The plan will take at least four years.’ — Steve Sailer
They don’t call it Taxachusetts for nothing.
Somehow dunning wage earners who can’t afford an EeeVee, to build out charging infrastructure for toffs who can, appeals deeply to yankee sensibilities.
‘For those who have little, even what they have shall be taken away,’ reads their puritanical Bible. Let the poor eat bugs.
Contained in the power to tax, is the power to take it all.
Well, I’ve lived in Cambridge, MA, many years ago.
Vicinity Elm & Hampshire, Near Inman Square, to be precise.
Using Google maps, take a walk down any residential street in central Cambridge, or many other cities in metropolitan Boston, and tell me where these chargers will be installed, who will be privileged to use them, and how they will function following the first heavy snowfall of the season.
Your average wood frame 3 flat triple decker, sans garage, on a narrow residential street, has inadequate parking even in summer. Add in parking restrictions for snow removal, or autos buried under 2-3 feet of snow for chuckles. A “fast charger” for every street parking space? YGBSM.
*Some* bodies will get fat off of such a “surcharge,” but it sure as hell will not be the average working stiff, let alone low income college students. Try Lexington*, for starters, or maybe Milton. See how this works?
—————-
*Irony intended.
I have a long-time friend who lives in MA. He jokingly calls it “Tax-a-Chussets”….
Hi Adi,
It’s even worse than that, the People’s Republic of Cambridge has been removing parking spaces and replacing them with bike lanes adjacent to the curb. The few spaces they left are halfway into the street so good luck getting out of your car without having the door ripped off by a passing bus.
The local merchants are mad as hell since there’s no longer anyplace for their customers to park while they run in for a quick purchase; most are losing money and will soon go out of business but the local commissars are unmoved. Cambridge actively hates motorists.
Wow, that photo of the Dorchester Brewing company’s exterior. Giant BLM murals and gay rainbow flag. That would be a signal to me to go somewhere else. It’s really true how this whole EeeVeee thing is just another “current thing.” The guy’s travails of trying to be a compliant little monkey were funny. Clown world.
Seems the Eeee Veee market is pretty well saturated now. Not much aspirational longing among anyone I know for a Tesla. I do still see people wanting an old Ford or Chevy truck, maybe a 70s Camaro or Trans Am. The desire to fit in is innate in we humans. The burning Desiree to be a ‘Kool kid’ however seems limited to coastal elite shit holes.
As we all know it isn’t really about anything other than taking away our POVs. Any day now the velvet glove should be coming off to reveal the iron fist. The prescient trio from Canada saw it pretty well almost 50 years ago. 2112 will come about 80 years early. How we let less than 1K people control nearly a billion of us is still a mystery to me. Reminds me of the ‘not funny’ joke. What did collectivists use for light before candles and torches? Answer; Electricity.
‘it’s always been up to us to refuse to squeal like a pig.’ — eric
Soon this too shall be mandated by the butt-bonk “Biden” administration.
Go Woke; get poked.
Does anybody really know what sex they are
Does anybody really care
If so I can’t imagine why
We’ve all got time enough to cry
— Chicago, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
Can’t wait to see electric garbage trucks, the batteries will be so heavy the trucks will only be able to carry less than half the load they do now. A bonus will be when they catch fire and save a trip to the incinerator.
New meaning to dumpster fire. Can you imagine the smell?
Already happened in NYC, where they use garbage trucks to also do the plowing. When plowing w their new EV garbage trucks, they went 1/3 the distance an ICE truck did and they were scratching their heads….what?????……. haha………….. how stupid do you have to be.
Of course it won’t stop NYC from doubling and tripling down and have to buy 2-3 times as many trucks at NYC residents expense.
https://gothamist.com/news/snow-go-for-nycs-electric-garbage-trucks-that-cant-handle-winter-weather
Wasn’t this already tried, as in: You can have any car you want, as long as it is a Trabant. Ecclesiastes 1:9 comes to mind.
A parasite writes “EMERGENCY” on a piece of paper…. Another parasite of ‘extreme importance!’ signs it and we all follow in lockstep through the gates of hell singing kumbaya.
The best govern-ment is no govern-ment…. Latin meaning control the mind. And boy,,, do they!
Public education, the longest running and most successful psyop in the history of the species.
So anytime the government forces a market, there is a lot of $$ to be made. It can be made by guys like you and me, if you want to. ‘Frinstance, with the jabs, buy Pfizer. You know the jabs are BS, so now Pfizer is fizzling out. But if you got in early, and got out in time, you made out big time. Same would be here for these exotic metals that go into the batteries. Invest in lithiium & cobalt miners & refiners. Maybe battery makers. But only do so for the next few years, at most. Then get out.
You’ve got the conscience thing maybe holding you back from profiting like this, but eh, it’s kinda like taking Social Security. One may not like the idea of it, but one will take the benefits when offered.
I meant to add, the forced market removes the doubt and risk, but just for a short time. Eventually, sanity would return (the jabs are an example of this) and the money made under these false pretenses will evaporate.
The difference of course being that we did not voluntarily pay taxes for SS. What you propose is voluntary, and your investment helps those servants of the state make even more money.
The push for EVs is another Leftist pipe dream, co-opted by the Kleptocracy and Banksters robbing our once-great Nation blind to siphon off more money. Of itself, it doesn’t have a “market”, at least not one driven by consumer demand, but rather by government diktat.
Of course, who’s raising the question: by what AUTHORITY does “Uncle” get involved in the car business at all? I don’t see it in the US Constitution. Further proof that, in practicality, it’s but a scrap of paper.
Douglass, it’s right there in the interstate commerce clause, which has been distorted to mean practically anything the state wants it to mean. That it has the authority to regulate anything that affects interstate commerce, and nearly everything does. Including how much toilet paper you use per wipe. We have “smart” electric meters, why not “smart” toilet paper dispensers?
The market is moving for EVs like the market is moving for MORE vaccines. COVID jab/ booster uptake has plummeted over the past several months or so, but that doesn’t seem to have deterred the Biden regime from pushing for developing even MORE mRNA COVID jabs. Even though the Biden Thing signed a bill ending the “COVID National Public Health Emergency” this week, the regime is still focused on making future COVID jabs, even to the point of possibly implementing what someone calls “Operation Warp Speed 2.0”, and sending even MORE taxpayer to the pharmaceutical industry to do so…if they succeed, could they try to MANDATE those jabs in the future?
https://thehighwire.com/editorial/as-pandemic-officially-ends-biden-keeps-covid-alive-with-future-funding/
Taxpayer money *
I would dispute there is such a thing as a “taxpayer”. Taxes are collected, at gunpoint, they aren’t paid. I pay my electric bill, because I want to keep my lights on. My taxes are collected, for crap I most definitely don’t want.
John K,
There should be more people outraged that the Biden regime not only sent BILLIONS of dollars to Keeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeev (that we’ll pay for when the Biden regime seeks to seize even MORE money from Americans), they also want to send BILLIONS of dollars to the pharmaceutical industry for making even more COVID “vaccines”, and if John Kerry gets his way, the Biden Thing will also seek to seize even MORE money from Americans for “Combating climate change”. The whole regime needs removed from office before they cause irreparable DAMAGE to this country, but there was a recent poll that indicated about 1/3 of Americans think Joe Biden should run again next year. Who ARE those people who think Biden should run for a SECOND term?
“The whole regime needs removed from office”
Perhaps it’s the offices that need removal?
“Or to walk, if the device is beyond your means.”
The arrogance and hubris of these petty thugs and tyrants is breathtaking.
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act set the tone. GovCo will decide who is and who is not a monopoly and how they are to be dealt with. This was passed in 1890 under Republican Benjamin Harrison…no surprise there. It set the stage for all manner of GovCo interference in commerce and the free exchange of goods and services.
That interference has never receded. Although current lackeys such as Buttigig can at times expose their superior attitude, it was in 1993 that the grandest declaration of all was uttered. It was by the spoken by none other than Hillary Clinton. When asked about her “healthcare” taskforce and its proposals causing undue economic burdens on small and medium size businesses she replied, “I can’t be responsible for every under-capitalized business.”
Had a guillotine been used in response to her declaration maybe we’d not be where we are today.
At the time, you could see that demonic, maniacal gleam in her eyes…by virtue of being the President’s Hag, she PRESUMED to wield control over OUR lives. Even the Marie Antoinette, born a Austrian Hapsburg princess and married to Louis XVI, that you reference wasn’t that scheming and grasping. She was simply spoiled and CLUELESS. At least she wanted to feed the French peasant cake. During the 1992 campaign, when the soon-to-be First Couple were on the podium (I believe it was at the Convention that nominated “Slick Willie”), she pushed him aside and told the enthusiastic audience, “You’ve picked him, now you’ve got me”. Somehow, even in that deluded crown, I’ll gather that the “applause” was a bit…FORCED.
I will have to hope my vehicles keep running until I die. I’m sure the Regime has a solution to that too. When the take rates on EVs are minuscule and the automakers cry to the regulators “Uncle Sugar, they won’t buy the shitty, useless glorified golf carts you made us sell,” they’ll have to force us to give up our ICE cars via some sort of regulatory fiat.
It’s past time to do something about these bastards. The regulatory state must be dismantled in toto and those powers sent mostly back to the states. That said, California regulators, through the sheer size of their population, should not be able to set national standards like they have been able to do.
We need a national divorce, but like the first time, these bastards will not let us go quietly. They need the goods made in our red state factories. They need the crops grown in our fields. They need us far more than we need them.
nah, they can get what they need from china
They’ll just presume to deal with “vintage” rides by bureaucratic diktat. When the REAL Mopars are outlawed, only “outlaws” will drive them.
The Market is Moving for Budlight as well.
I can’t find an article or section in the federal constitution that gives the executive the power to do such things. Then again the constitution died in 1861. Trump and the stupid party are once again being handed the golden gift of leftist insanity. Will they capitalize on it? Probably not if history is any indicator.
As for me, I will not buy an EV. It is completely impractical for my lifestyle.
But Mike, that’s exactly the point. They don’t want you to live your lifestyle. They want you to live the lifestyle they’ve planned for you.
>They want you to live the lifestyle they’ve planned for you
Exactly.
How *dare* you live out beyond the power lines, generate your own electricity, grow your own food, manufacture your own motor fuel, etc.
LOL.
Well it won’t be the first time I’ve given a big GFYS to the powers that be.