“Implausibility of a Net-Zero Carbon Energy Future”
“The WSJ Editorial Board writes the implausibility of a net-zero carbon energy future is becoming so obvious that even Europeans are starting to notice.”
Doug Sheridan: “Implausibility of a Net-Zero Carbon Energy Future”
The WSJ Editorial Board writes
the implausibility of a net-zero carbon energy future is becoming so obvious that even Europeans are starting to notice. Witness the weekend decision to step back from the ban on internal-combustion automobile engines that the European Union had intended to implement by 2035.
The eurocrats in Brussels had formulated the ban as part of their plan to reach net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050. But what regulators imagine would replace conventional engines remains a mystery. Battery technologies don’t exist to replace fossil fuels in driving distance or ease of refueling, and no one can say if or when such batteries will materialize.
EVs also need subsidies for consumers and for production across the supply chain to be profitable. What's more, EVs also require rare-earth minerals often sourced from dirty mines in China.
For these reasons... plus a strong dose of old-fashioned commercial self-interest... Germany’s auto industry objected to the ban on internal-combustion engines, and it’s good they did. Resistance from Berlin and several other European gov'ts has forced Brussels into all but abandoning its engine ban.
Consumers will be allowed to buy internal-combustion autos as long as those cars can run on synthetic fuels, which are fuels made from captured carbon or renewable energy. Brussels still seems to hope that these cars will run only on such “e-fuels” by that deadline. But doubts about the technological feasibility of that pledge may explain why environmental groups were aghast at the decision.
The usual suspects complain this is another earth-destroying crony gift from Berlin to its auto industry—as if there’s no cronyism or corporate welfare involved in subsidizing EVs that carry their own high environmental costs. The reality is that the big winners are consumers, who will enjoy a wider range of motors and fuel types with which to balance their mobility needs and their green aspirations.
To Sum It Up: European's will have a luxury that consumers won’t enjoy in California, Oregon and Washington state, where bans on new cars with internal-combustion-engines remain on the books for 2035. You know your state capital has taken a wrong turn when your lawmakers would do well to learn a lesson from Brussels.
Our Take 1: We'd wager Europeans will be purchasing... and filling up more with petrol than syn fuels... their internal-combustion vehicles well past 2035. After all, Europeans make some of the best engineered vehicles on the planet. Why would they throw one of the few competitive industries they have overboard?
Our Take 2: Kudos to German automakers for speaking up. Failure to do so would have led to the EU committing one of the great unforced errors of all time.
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