HOW DARE YOU BE RICH?

A fan site for electric cars is not amused by Ford's battery F-150.

In 2018, the US had just 4% of the world’s total population, and yet it consumed 17% of the world’s total energy production.

By continuing to commit to producing large, heavy vehicles the US is committing to consuming more than its fair share of energy.

That same four percent of the world's total population is going to produce well more than four percent of the coronavirus vaccinations that the world's population will receive.  I wonder if the author even considered that before launching into the usual sort of redistributive cant.  "Crucial to this is considering the role of the Global South – typically lower income countries which have historically had the lowest carbon footprints, and which are most vulnerable in the face of the Climate Crisis."  Now, whether those countries could produce, for instance, coronavirus vaccines, or thin-slab casters, or a good five-cent cigar with fewer resources never comes up.  More fun it is to dump on metrofexuals channelling their inner lumberjack with something bigger than a shitbox Prius.

This either means vastly higher levels of energy consumption – meaning more investment in renewable energy, or the consumption of more fossil fuels to produce electricity – a reduction in performance and range, or the production of larger batteries to make up for the shortfall in range due to weight.

Again, the latter does not represent a just transition, as the US would be consume more than its fair share of batteries and drive greater exploitation of people and land in order to produce them.

Not to mention child labor in Africa and convict labor in China extracting those rare earths and building or scrapping those batteries. Advantage entropy.  But even if that's beneficial from a greenhouse gas perspective, it's still a bad bargain.  "As such, by committing to the continuation of these heavy, oversized vehicles – and using the incumbent President to promote them – the US is committing to a highly unjust climate transition that will only further exacerbate the gulf between rich and poor nations, while putting the safety of their own citizens at even greater jeopardy."

The political economy of metrofexual subsidies came to George Will's attention as well.  "Biden’s policy to use less affluent Americans’ money to entice more affluent Americans to buy [electric vehicles] is only one of the contemplated regressive policies by which his administration would transfer wealth upward."

Perhaps the best observation about the electric Big Pickup goes to Wired.  "Electric Vehicle of Dystopia."  Not because there's a zombie-stunning phaser embedded in the running lights.  "Ford says the extended battery in the more expensive version of the electric F-150 will be able to power a blacked-out home for three days. Potential users will likely have to pay to install a home integration system, price to be determined."