Planes, Trains and Automobiles … and Trucks, by Stephen Moore

The Biden administration has announced in recent weeks new stringent emissions requirements for virtually the entire American transportation system.

The Environmental Protection Agency will mandate by the year 2035 that virtually every car made and sold in America must be an EV. No more gas cars. The New York Times comically declared that motorists don’t have to worry because this “is not a ban on gasoline-powered vehicles.” Sure it isn’t.

Today less than 2% of cars use the electric power grid for fuel. So soon we will see 50 times more demand for electricity from autos.

Then the EPA announced new rules for trains in California to go electric — even as the Association of American Railroads has declared the mandate infeasible.

But wait. The climate change lobby is just getting started. There is now a new scheme to mandate that the long-haul trucking industry convert to electric battery operation from diesel fuel.

This is a technological and financial nightmare for our trucking industry. A 10-ton long-haul truck is going to carry cargo across the country on an electric battery? Really?

Planes haven’t been mandated by the climate lobby to stop using fossil fuels. But stick around.

Even if the technology existed to meet these mandates, this added strain on the electric grid system comes at a time when power production is already in short supply. The Wall Street Journal reports that power demands are expected to double over the next decade due to artificial intelligence and other technologies that use multiple times more energy than does the internet.

It also comes at a time when the Left has insisted that more than a dozen coal and gas plants need to be shuttered. Nuclear plants continue to get shuttered, too. Locally, greens also have started a movement to stop transmission lines and pipelines from being built.

What is the likely outcome of vastly expanding electric power demand at the same time the Biden administration is reducing supply? An energy calamity. Prices could as much as double. In California, which is at the forefront of the go-green movement, residents pay electric bills 29% higher than the U.S. average.

California is also second in the nation in power outages, with 221 from 2019 to 2023, according to Payless Power. This leaves schools, hospitals and millions of homes without electricity.

Some of the more honest green groups concede that a power shortage is coming as a result of their radical “decarbonization” agenda. Their solution is rationing energy. The government will tell you how much power you can use and when you can use it. There is also a move afoot to conserve energy by abolishing air conditioners and “nonessential” air travel — as well as gas stoves and power lawnmowers.

Energy is the master resource. Everything we have is derivative of cheap and reliable energy. The more energy a country uses, the richer it is. If you want to disrupt a nation’s progress, take away its energy sources.

This is usually a tactic that nations use against their enemies when they are at war. We are foolishly and self-destructively turning the lights off on ourselves.

Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump. His latest book is: “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.”

Photo credit: Nick Fewings at Unsplash