Andrew's Electric Car Problem: A Response to the NYT Daily's "Biden's Electric Car Problem"

Andrew Nolan

2023-11-21

On November 16th, the New York Times released an episode of The Daily titled "Biden's Electric Car Problem". In this episode they discussed President Biden's plan to increase the production of electric cars in the United States. You can listen to it here. One of the main themes of the episode is how electric cars can help the environment, to quote the episode "every time you don't sell an EV, you've missed an opportunity to fight climate change."

I believe this is a disingenuous stance and having a conversation about green transportation without discussing public transportation is unfair.

I like electric vehicles. But specifically focusing on cars, I am less excited. I still think electric cars are much better than gasoline powered cars for the environment. They are better than nothing, but I do not believe they are an effective solution to the climate crisis and I think focusing on them as the only solution is greenwashing the issue.

In any conversation about greener transportation we should at least mention public transportation. Currently, the carbon footprint per passenger mile is better for trains than electric cars. From the UK Department of Energy Security and Net Zero, electric cars average 47g of CO₂ per mile and trains average 35g per mile. Light rail and bus both fare even better. Of course, all of these are much better than the 170g produced by gas powered cars. Nevertheless, it seems odd that we would focus on one option while leaving out these alternatives that provide benefits to the environment as well.

As engine efficiency, batteries, and the power productions for charging systems improve the carbon footprint of electric vehicles will also improve. This improvement over time is another reason some argue for the move towards electric cars. But those same improvements apply to all electric vehicles, including buses and trains. So if the issue we are focused on solving is actually climate change induced by transportation, electric cars seem like only part of the solution. However, the framing of this podcast episode, and other news reports and political speeches treat the cars as the ONLY option. If we are dedicating time to this conversation, it feels important to at least mention alternative solutions.

It is also interesting to me that this episode is titled and about President Biden. Famously nicknamed 'Amtrak Joe', Biden very recently announced 16 billion dollars of funding for passenger rail projects. In this policy announcement, he even stated "There's so much more we can do to better the environment and quality of life." With such a recent transportation and environment related announcement, it feels like it should have a place in a news report about Biden's policies on greener transportation, but we only heard about electric cars...

Why am I so adamant about the public transportation discussion? It is because there are a lot of indirect environmental issues at play because of cars. Although electric cars reduce emissions, they do not address these other concerns, and the episode did not discuss them either.

From The Daily, "The White House, for example, loves to tout a lithium mine in Nevada as an example of the sort of activity that's being encouraged by these incentives." I suppose since it is in the desert it may have less negative impacts on surrounding people and nature, but a 9 square mile mine is huge and lithium mining is notoriously not great. Perhaps a mine run in the USA with all of our regulations will be better? Even disregarding the environmental related issues, we face another common problem with large natural resource extraction projects, it is going to steamroll indigenous peoples' sacred land. I'm not sure why the White House is so excited.

Back to climate change, my bigger gripe with cars is the environmental impact of car infrastructure. Roads take up a lot of space and require destroying or cutting ecosystems. They are bad for runoff and watersheds too. In this episode of The Daily they discussed how the US is on track to sell over 1 million EVs this year and they want to sell more. More cars, of any type, means we need more of this infrastructure to support them. If we want to discuss green solutions to transportation, I think this is something that cannot be overlooked.

Car infrastructure also leads to sprawl. We see this in suburbs, exburbs, and even cities built around cars. People live and work farther from one another and the things they need. This means we need to build more roads and cover more of the earth with pavement to support these systems. A vicious cycle also occurs as people drive more, the roads experience more wear and tear, thus leading to more repairs and more resources spent on maintaining these roads.

There may be work being done to improve the materials used to make roads, but right now they are mostly non-renewable. I'll confess that environmentally friendly road research is not something I know a lot about, but it seems like another important component of the climate solution if we are going to continue to push cars, even electric ones.

In addition to roads, the cycle of building farther apart and increasing car dependency also leads to other material and energy usage. As houses and businesses are spaced farther apart they require more pipes, sewage, and electrical wiring to connect them to important services. Building more infrastructure takes more materials, impacts more parts of the earth, and also means there are more spots that could experience damage or need repairs.

All that means more consumption. Sorry for being cynical, but if we are talking about buying more cars, it sounds like more consumption is our goal. Not improving the climate.

Biden's goal as discussed by The Daily episode is to manufacture and sell more electric vehicles. In the episode, they mention that the lifetime of a car is about a decade. This is touted as a key point for needing electric cars now, every gas car sold is a gas car on the road for at least 10 years. But, this idea is worth digging into more. If the life cycle of a car is about 10 years, that means the average American is owning about 6 of these in their lifetime. That's a lot of cars!

It has been debated if the production of electric cars produces a larger carbon footprint than gasoline vehicles. Despite these debates, the facts are there. Electric cars have a higher initial footprint, but they balance out to carbon parity within a year on the road and they fare much better than traditional cars over their lifetime. So, yes, electric cars are better than gasoline cars. But if our goal is fighting emissions, why is our solution to produce MORE vehicles that cause emissions? Yes they have less, but they still have some. If all cars produce emissions, we should at least consider an option of producing less cars. But the argument presented here is only for more.

I do not want to digress too far from the environmental issue, that is the main thesis of the podcast and what I want to address today. But, I would be remiss if I did not include a few other important points. Specifically, there are problems associated with cars themselves, and electric cars are not helping to solve them.

In 2022, pedestrian deaths from cars hit a 40 year high. Despite an increase in remote work, traffic is also getting worse in major cities, like Boston. Our cars themselves are getting safer equipment, but drivers are getting more aggressive. I am sure if you are a driver you have experienced some of this frustration while commuting. Adding more cars will not solve these problems, in fact, more cars on the road will probably make them worse.

Adding more electric cars will help mitigate some of the emissions problems of gasoline cars, but it will not help the environmental and social issues endemic to car infrastructure. If we truly want to help the environment, it is worth considering other solutions.

Despite all of my arguments, I am truly happy that the current administration is trying to do something about the climate crisis. It may not be the perfect solution, but it can be a stepping stone towards better climate solutions and if we continue these conversations we can center public transportation and other solutions as well.

Thank you for taking the time to read this rant. I believe transportation is an effective and important area in fighting climate change, but doing it right is important. I think in the United States we often live in a car-centric world, so electric cars seem like a quick solution. But there are a lot of alternatives, like public transit, that we should be discussing as well. It feels unfair to leave these out.

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