To have an opinion on the issues that face this country, you should first have an idea of how these issues work in the first place. For Pete Buttigieg, his entire job is knowing how things move from place to place. He is the Transportation Secretary, after all. So when he makes suggestions, the American people should be able to take them at face value and believe he not only knows what he is talking about, but that he is doing his best to look out for Americans.
Pete knows this, and he took to an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart armed to the teeth with information! “The people who stand to benefit most from owning an EV are often rural residents, who have the longest distances to drive, they often burn the most gas… They would gain the most from having that vehicle, but these are the very residents who have not always been connected to electric vehicles that are viewed as kind of a luxury item.” Even taking time to note the $12,500 tax credit for union-made vehicles he proclaimed, “families who once they own that vehicle will never have to worry about gas prices again.”
Oh, Pete. You haven’t the foggiest clue how rural America works do you? You don’t quite grasp the concept that electric vehicles can’t be even looked at by Cecil or Rufus down the road? You don’t grasp the concept of how poorly they work in severe cold, on dirt roads, or with a limited electrical grid. This is a foreign concept for him, and it’s honestly humiliating.
Yes, Biden is the grand poohbah of not knowing what he is talking about, and he shows that off regularly. “For the hundreds of thousands of folks who bought one of those electric cars, they’re going to save $800 to $1000 in fuel costs this year” was his proclamation after touring the latest Hummer factory for their electric vehicle; complete with a $112,000 price tag. This vehicle is far beyond the reach of most consumers in urban America, and in rural America, it’s even further away from feasible.
Let’s not even talk about the maintenance costs and the lack of shops that can work on them or even have the training to try and work on them. Let’s just focus on their infrastructure to support such vehicles. As Texas showed earlier in 2021 with their great blackout, when things go down in rural America, they go down in a big way. Farmers can’t refill an electric vehicle when the power goes out, but they can start a fossil fuel-powered truck or tractor. They can run that vehicle on combinations of other various fluids often found in barns, garages, basements, and even grandpa’s liquor cabinet. They can’t make electricity from these things to charge the batteries. This means animals suffer and die.
Those same farmers can also burn those fuels in the fireplace or in a fuel-burning stove to keep warm during those tough times. Electricity doesn’t burn unless you burn the whole car down; then there goes the tax incentive and they are incredibly volatile and prone to explosions with fire.
Any way you look at this argument, electric vehicles are arriving at a time of great innovation, and the American people are ready to accept this innovation. However, in rural America, things change a little slower. Time drags on a little more. Innovation is under more scrutiny. If it isn’t fixing a problem they are already experiencing (and know they are experiencing) then they don’t care about fixing it as it’s not really a problem for them.
Electric vehicles are simply an answer to a question nobody asked for in rural America. The sooner Buttigieg and the rest of the left learn this, the better off they will be.