https://insideevs.com/syndicated-columnist-electric-cars-not-green/
[The disinformation wars continue to be a real barrier for the
acceptance of EVs by consumers (among others).
links and images in online article]
Columnist Repeats Bogus Claim That Electric Cars Aren’t Green
January 28, 2019
BRADLEY BERMAN
Let’s not spread conspiracy theories. But there are troubling signs
about the latest anti-EV op-ed.
“Electric vehicle subsidies don’t help the environment.” That’s the
headline of an opinion piece you might have seen recently in your local
paper. The piece by Drew Johnson first appeared in the Austin
American-Statesman a month ago.
Johnson’s article keeps showing up in local papers – from Montrose,
Colo. to Houma, La. That’s because the Austin American-Statesman was
purchased by GateHouse Media in 2018. The Pittsford, NY-company now
publishes 145 daily newspapers, 325 community publications and more than
555 local market websites that reach more than 23 million people each
week. GateHouse’s influence reaches 37 states.
While Johnson arguably makes a fair criticism about EV tax credits going
mostly to high-income earners, he also trots out some of the biggest
whoppers about electric vehicles.
The study by the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think-tank,
claimed: “Widespread adoption of electric vehicles nationwide will
likely increase air pollution compared with new internal combustion
vehicles. You read that right: more electric cars and trucks will mean
more pollution.”
Fact Check
Andy Palanisamy, manager of Ford’s Urban Data Platform, made a post on
LinkedIn last week that provides a useful dose of facts. “One of the
arguments often heard in the sustainable mobility debates during the
past decades is that even if we transition to electric vehicles the
source of energy will still remain fossil fuels, and that means we are
simply displacing the source of emissions from tailpipes to smokestacks.”
Planisamy said that this was partially true in the past when most of the
power generated in the US came from coal-powered plants. “This scenario
has changed dramatically and quickly,” he explained pointing to this
graph from the Financial Times.
Bloomberg comes to the same conclusion. Earlier this month, the media
company reported a story, “Electric Cars Are Cleaner Even When Powered
by Coal.” Moreover, according to Bloomberg, electric cars will become
cleaner in the coming years as utilities close coal plants and draw more
energy from wind and solar farms. “When an internal combustion vehicle
rolls off the line its emissions per kilometer are set, but for an EV
they keep falling every year as the grid gets cleaner,” said Colin
McKerracher, a transport analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
McKerracher concluded, “While technological improvements will see
related emissions from combustion engines falling by about 1.9 percent a
year through to 2040, pollution from electric vehicles will fall
anywhere from 3 percent and 10 percent annually.”
Persistent Misinformation
As with any news these days, it’s critical to consider the source.
Johnson is the founder and first president of the Tennessee Center for
Policy Research, now known as the Beacon Center of Tennessee. The center
previously ran a website called “Carnival of Climate Change.” Johnson is
also credited with revealing in 2007 that Al Gore’s Tennessee mansion
used roughly 20 times more energy than the typical American household.
Johnson previously served as a Koch Fellow at the Institute for Humane
Studies and the American Enterprise Institute, both funded by
foundations tied to Koch Industries.
GateHouse Media has a mixed record on reporting about climate change. In
August 2018, GateHouse published a balanced assessment of how rising
seas in Florida had become undeniable, thus affecting the state’s
citizen and politics. Earlier this month, the North Carolina’s
Fayetteville Observer, a GateHouse Media property, published an opinion
piece explaining how the fossil-fuel industry wages climate-denial
campaigns.
