Headline: “Senate Democrats on Monday begged President Joe Biden to lower seven-year high gas prices by releasing emergency oil reserves.” – Breitbart News.
And here’s another one.
Headline: “White House Begs OPEC To Increase Oil Production Again Amid ‘Supply Issues’, Soaring Energy Prices.” – Epoch Times.
One more for the road.
Headline: “Biden admin considering shutting down Michigan pipeline, drawing criticism and dire warnings as winter nears.” — Fox News.
Okay. Here it is. While drivers, consumers, and even some Democrats are whining about higher gasoline prices – and prices for just about everything else – Joe Biden and the Squad could not be happier.
Surely you remember when Joe was Vice President and Barack Obama was officially in the White House (Is Obama really running the Biden Administration from his multiple mansions?). Remember that Barack told us in plain language that, under his cap and trade plan, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”
This is not an accident. Higher prices and lower availability of gasoline and diesel fuel change the economics for electric vehicle purchases. That’s your transition period. The goal is to ban the SALE of gasoline and diesel fuel as quickly as it can be done without inciting major riots.
But ONLY in the United States. And Europe. And Australia and New Zealand – and of course Canada. Anywhere Westerners (whose children have been taught to hate the entirety of their existence) are dumb enough to give up their freedoms in favor of blackouts, brownouts, and other disruptions to their ability to travel and organize.
All around the nation local planning organizations are being urged to join in the campaign to reduce vehicle miles traveled – a little at a time – as younger adults eschew automobile ownership (they are even slower to get driver licenses) in favor of Ubers and just staying home and having virtual friends.
U.S. automakers have submitted to the master planners and thus ignored their customers by insisting on producing ONLY electric vehicles as early as 2026. This despite the fact that even in 2021, EVs constitute less than 1 percent of all U.S. vehicles on the road and just 3.2 percent of 2019 U.S. auto sales. And that’s WITH the lucrative subsidies.
And speaking of subsidies, now that GM and Tesla have exceeded the 200,000 EV sales threshold that cut the federal tax credit in half, there are moves afoot to restore the full $7,500 federal tax credit amount until half the vehicles each manufacturer sells are EVs. If just 50 million EV buyers qualify, that is a combined $375 billion out of our pockets.
Joe Biden’s plan calls for another $7.5 billion in subsidies for 250,000 new EV charging stations. Given that Electrify America’s cost per stall installed is about $215,000, the $30,000 per stall subsidy is not that big an incentive, since each EV charging station replaces at least one gasoline pumping station but can “refuel” far fewer vehicles per hour.
Actual profitable use of these EV charging stations will not occur until there are massive increases in the number of EVs on the road – which will take years, if not decades. That’s a huge discouragement to driving, too. Running out of gas is bad enough, but one small can of gasoline enables one to hop to a nearby fueling station.
Running out of juice on the side of the road requires a tow to a charging station or a jump start that takes maybe an extra hour. Expensive. Time consuming. Better to just stay home in front of the video game or social media site.
Now we have Erin Sagen of NBC News reminding us that automobiles are lethal and driving is dangerous and (at least hinting) that we should all drive much less. Citing deaths and injuries from auto crashes, Sagen asserts that “Cars put us in clear, imminent danger every day, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized.” Cars are even racist – black and brown people are more likely to die or be injured by cars than white people.
Surely the answer is that nobody drives – except the computer. Google, Tesla, Uber, Nissan, and other automakers, researchers, and technology companies have been developing self-driving technologies that purport to increase safety by removing the error-prone human driver from the equation.
Taking the fun out of driving is part of a strategy championed by the World Economic Forum. They envision the abolition of private property in favor of a global common trust administered by Technocrat scientists and engineers. Already voices are telling us that car ownership is selfish, inefficient, and expensive. Among GoFar’s five reasons for NOT owning a car is their screed against the widespread feeling that car ownership enhances our freedom.
The elites have drivers and private jets (for attending climate) yet tell the hoi polloi they are selfish polluters who are killing the Earth itself. Today they are in charge because we ceded power to them willingly, not believing they could possibly intend to implement the plans they so eloquently laid out before us.
Their success depends on whether they can convince enough of the hoi polloi to agree with Joe Biden that freedom is a dirty word. And why not? Wasn’t “Freedom” the battle cry of William Wallace, as portrayed by the much maligned Mel Gibson?
Not everyone is on board with the planners, the Bidens, and the arrogant woke. Mechanical engineer and car enthusiast Bob Tomaine writes that “the organized effort to force electrics on a market that might or might not want them often creates the impression that the battle is lost.” But, he adds, “despite the almost uninterrupted flow of rabidly pro-EV reporting, proselytizing, and, yes, promoting from all sides … not everyone is buying into it.”
Maybe one day the people will run the planners out of their garages. In the meantime, we can look forward to ever-increasing prices for gasoline, heavier blankets, and 55-degree thermostats. And blackouts – that make charging EVs impossible!
And don’t forget to thank Joe Biden for all the things you are giving up for Net Zero.