Still refusing to pay attention to reality, California’s clean-air regulators have just put forth a scheme that would phase-in a ban on the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles.
This segment of What’s Ahead explains why this is an exercise in absurdity that’s based on fantasy, not the real world of science.
Replacing oil and gas is an impossibility for the foreseeable future. Energy demand will be skyrocketing as developing countries expand auto ownership. High tech’s consumption of electricity is also skyrocketing. The Cloud today uses more electricity than the entire country of Japan, the world’s third-largest economy.
Windmills and solar panels can’t even begin to meet these needs. Moreover, replacing fossil fuels with these alternatives would require a ten-fold increase in global mining, tearing up millions of acres of pristine lands.
Electric vehicles will also bring a mammoth disposal problem: A typical car has a half-ton battery.
