Watch: Morano on Varney on Fox debunks ‘hottest year’, EV mandates & more

Fox Business Channel – Varney & Co – Broadcast January 10, 2024

Stuart Varney: The EPA will hold a hearing on California’s EV mandate. That mandate basically bans the sale of new gas cars by 2035. Climate guy Marc Morano is with us this morning. Marc, a contrarian question. We hear that last year, 2023, was the hottest year ever on record. So, what’s wrong with banning gas-powered cars by 2035?

Marc Morano: Well, first of all, the hottest year on record is pretty much declared almost every other year. It’s based on temperatures hundreds or tenths of a degree difference between years — many times within the margin of error, the data set and even NASA’s former head global warming scientist said it’s ‘not important’ and a political statement.

It’s meant to create fear, meant to push politics like EV mandates. And if you were actually worried about climate change, the last thing you would think of is EVs are the solution. It takes half a million pounds of materials, including rare earth materials, to make one average-sized Tesla battery.

EVs dig the Earth, and not on a groovy 1970s Brady Bunch way, Stuart. But I mean, they dig the earth deeply with lots of emissions, with low environmental standards, and we have farmed out all of that mining out to the countries with the worst human rights and environmental standards — China. And, of course, Chinese-owned mines in Africa with underage kids. So, even if you’re concerned about global warming, EVs aren’t the answer.

Stuart Varney: If they accept California’s mandate, that rapidly becomes a national mandate, doesn’t it? It’d be adopted by all the other states almost inevitably, and that would mean we as a country will ban gas cars by 2035. I mean, do you really see that happening?

Marc Morano: Well, I see a major collision coming and a battle here on EVs. When I was in the United States Senate Environment Public Works Committee — as as a staffer — not a senator, we dealt with this California waiver. The Trump administration dealt with this. It’s back again. What this basically says is California is going to be granted the right to set federal vehicle transportation policy. That’s what this is. That’s what the California waiver is in layman’s terms, is we’re going let Governor Gavin Newsom dictate the future of gas-powered cars.

This has to be stopped. It’s unlawful. We need to have consumers make this choice. The whole idea, I think, was the Honda EV concept you just showed earlier — we should be excited about new technology. But instead, people are like, wait a minute, they’re banning the competition. If these EVs are so great, why do you ban the competition? The same is true with solar and wind. Why do we ban coal, oil, gas, restrict and ration them in order to have the winner which is politically selected?

And the bottom line is consumer choice and what makes sense logically, and this doesn’t make sense logically, even when you look at it from a climate-obsessed way.

Stuart Varney: Related story, the Biden administration has announced a $1 billion plan to provide Green School buses to districts across the country. Yeah. Okay. You’re laughing, so you don’t think it’s a good investment?

Marc Morano: I think even the corporate media like the Washington Post, which is run by Jeff Bezos, which is pushing these kinds of electric vehicles, they couldn’t even spin this successfully in the article that the Washington Post is promoting. They’re talking about years of infrastructure buildup needed to even power this green electric bus fleet.

Plus, we have the recent history of Sweden, which had to cancel EV buses because of cold weather. They weren’t operating. Philadelphia spent some upwards of 20 million plus, and their buses eventually disappeared due to maintenance issues.

They are forcing an energy transition on the public and on our infrastructure in our country that’s just not ready. They haven’t worked out even half the bugs yet. This is just another example. And it’s due to this Inflation Reduction Act, which will pump out billions of dollars in federal mandates and subsidies for decades into the future, unlike Obama’s stimulus, which expired after a few years. So everything looks successful. And initially, when you have all the startup money, people look and say ‘Wow, look at this,  record profits, investors, green, green money coming in’. It’s because it’s an illusion of prosperity from the government selecting these winners and losers.

Mandating electric buses is not going to work, but the only thing electric buses will do is make Virtual Learning come back for students as they won’t be able to get to school. And then, once the EV buses collapse the electrical grid, Virtual Learning won’t even exist because of blackouts. And California is very well known for their blackouts.

Stuart Varney: You’re painting a very dark picture Marc Morano. Come back and do it again. We’ll see you soon.  Climate Depot.

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Related: 

WaPo article on EV school buses – Excerpt: A recent report by the EPA’s internal watchdog found that while districts haven’t had difficulty purchasing electric school buses, they have encountered problems charging them. The buses suck an enormous amount of power from the grid — a concern for districts that got enough federal funding to buy 20 to 25 buses but don’t have the infrastructure to deliver that much electricity.

Utility companies interviewed by the EPA’s inspector general said delays have resulted from a shortage of high-voltage transformers and the need to run additional power lines. One company said it could take nine months to two years to complete construction.

“The increased demand on utility companies may impact the timeliness of replacing diesel buses,” the EPA’s inspector general concluded, calling on school districts to coordinate better with their local power companies. Some rural school districts have also found that in areas where charging stations are scarce, the electric buses are unable to cover the long distances between schools and students’ homes. In California, some districts in the state’s rural northern reaches have kept their diesel buses running while the new electric ones sit idle, according to a report by the Los Angeles Times. “Everybody sees the bright, beautiful, shiny school bus, and that gets all of the attention. But it’s the infrastructure that makes it work,” said Kevin Matthews, head of electrification at the school transportation provider First Student, which received a conditional grant from the EPA for 375 electric buses.

“Before you even apply for electric school bus funding, you need to sit down with your utility and look at what the options are,” Matthews said.

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Fox Business Channel – Varney & Co – Broadcast January 10, 2024

Morano: “The hottest year on record is pretty much declared almost every year every other year. It’s based on temperatures hundreds or tenths of a degree difference between years — many times within the margin of error, the data set and even the NASA former head global warming scientist said it’s ‘not important’ and a political statement.

It’s meant to create fear, meant to push politics like EV mandates. And if you were actually worried about climate change, the last thing you would think of is EVs are the solution. It takes half a million pounds of materials, including rare earth materials to make one average-sized Tesla battery.

Morano on EVs: “EVs dig the Earth, and not on a groovy 1970s Brady Bunch way, Stuart. But I mean, they dig the earth deeply with lots of emissions, with low environmental standards, and we have farmed out all of that mining out to the countries with the worst human rights and environmental standards.”

Morano on Electric School buses: “Mandating electric buses is not going to work, but the only thing electric buses will do is make Virtual Learning come back for students as they won’t be able to get to school. And then once the EV buses collapse the electrical grid, Virtual Learning won’t even exist because of blackouts. And California is very well known for their blackouts.”

Stuart Varney: You’re painting a very dark picture Marc Morano. Come back and do it again. We’ll see you soon.