Why Is Electricity So Cheap If Electric Vehicles Are Currently A Carbon-Pollution Disaster?

[solutions]

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Subject: Why Is Electricity So Cheap If Electric Vehicles Are Currently A Carbon-Pollution Disaster?
From: Solutions
Date: Wed, October 5, 2022 7:13 am PDT
To: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
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Dear John,

I read with interest the 10/4/2022 Short Quiz’s Sec. C entitled “Why Do Environmentalists Want To Keep Our Coal-Fired Electric-Generation Plants Running???”

If on a “with and without” basis, any economist (or, as you also posit, any "trouble-shooting" high-end stereo equipment owner) would say that since electric vehicles use less electricity from the nation’s grid than is supplied by coal-fired electric-generation plants, the grid usage by electric vehicles prevents the closing of coal-fired plants which generate an equivalent amount of electricity.

So why is the cost of electricity used by electric vehicles so much less than the cost of gasoline for the same distance?

Your friend,

Solutions


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Subject: Re: Why Is Electricity So Cheap If Electric Vehicles Are Currently A Carbon-Pollution Disaster?
From: ReadingLiberally-SaltLake@johnkarls.com
Date: Thu, October 6, 2022 2:51 pm MDT
To: Solutions
Attachment:
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Dear Solutions,

Thank you very much for your e-mail.

In answering your question, please keep in mind that the CIA’s World Factbook (https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/ ... es/#energy) says that the sources of U.S. electricity in 2020 (the last year available) were --

Fossil fuels – 59.9%*
Nuclear – 19.5%
Wind – 8.3%
Hydro – 7.0%
Solar – 3.2%
Biomass & waste – 1.7%
Geothermal – 0.4%

* The CIA no longer provides a breakdown between coal and other fossil fuels whose carbon emissions per kilowatt-hour of electricity generated are also “eye popping.”


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FIRST CONSIDERATION – As we have studied many times in the past, a tremendous percentage of the energy contained in the fuel source (coal, oil & gas, etc.) is used and/or lost during the conversion to electricity. And a tremendous percentage of the remaining energy is used and/or lost during transmission to the location of usage (or, in the case electric vehicles, the location of re-charging).

SECOND CONSIDERATION – The cost of the fuel-source of the electricity bears no relationship to the carbon-toxicity of the fuel source -- for example, the reason for the 59.9% market share of fossil fuels is their cheap price compared to wind and solar which require massive subsidies to be competitive economically. Yet, fossil fuels produce carbon pollution and wind/solar/hydro/nuclear do not.

[Accordingly, because electric vehicles receive ALL OF THEIR GRID ELECTRICITY on a “with and without” basis from coal-fired electric-generation plants, they are carbon-pollution disasters regardless of how much their electricity costs.]

THIRD CONSIDERATION – Most electricity users are charged using a cost component for fuel source reflecting the blend of the grid’s or the utility’s fuel sources. So an “average” utility would have very little fuel-source cost for its 7.0% hydro, a modest fuel-source cost for its 19.5% nuclear, a market (or “marginal cost” in economic terms) cost for its 59.9% oil & gas, and an exorbitant PRE-SUBSIDY fuel-source cost for its 10.2% wind/solar.

[The subsidy for the exorbitant wind/solar might be provided by government and/or it might comprise hiding the exorbitant cost in the blended “average” fuel-source cost or, in effect, subsidizing wind/solar with cheap hydro/nuclear/coal/oil/gas.]

[Indeed, the 8/1/2022 Minutes of Our Thorium-Fission Working Group “Meeting on the So-Called Inflation-Reduction Act of 2022” reported that the Act increased the federal income-tax credit for electric-generation facilities using NON-NUCLEAR “green” fuels to 3 cents per kilowatt hour (there may, of course, be other NON-NUCLEAR “green” fuel subsidies already buried in other areas of federal law and/or in state & local law – please see the 8/1/2022 minutes at viewtopic.php?p=3019&sid=6484a0a44729f5 ... 410d#p3019. BTW, for an appreciation of the scale of the 3 cents per kilowatt hour for NON-NUCLEAR “green” fuel subsidies, the U.S. Government reports that the average cost of household electricity for Aug 2022 and Sep 2022 (the latest statistics available) was 16.7 cents per kilowatt hour – please see https://www.bls.gov/regions/midwest/dat ... _table.htm.]

FOURTH CONSIDERATION – The federal tax on gasoline is currently 18 cents/gallon (24 cents for diesel) which is utilized for highway construction/maintenance. In addition, states impose an additional use tax averaging some 35 cents/gallon for road construction/maintenance. In addition, state sales tax is usually imposed on gasoline – for example, the typical state sales tax is 4% to 7% which, multiplied by, say, $3.50/gallon = another 14 cents/gallon to 25 cents/gallon. I believe that electric vehicles do NOT pay these taxes which probably total 67 cents/gallon to 78 cents/gallon.


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CONCLUSION

It is respectfully suggested that the primary answers to your Q of why the cost of electricity used by electric vehicles is so much less than the cost of gasoline for the same distance are --

(1) the “Third Consideration” – that utilities and the grid provide a blended “average” fuel-source cost that includes substantial de facto subsidies from cheap hydro and nuclear; and

(2) the “Fourth Consideration” – that gasoline bears taxes of approximately 75 cents/gallon that electricity and electric vehicles do not bear.

If you have any additional questions or comments, I know you’re not shy.

Your friend,

John K.