Is California’s electric car revolution bad for the planet?

By 2035, California will ban the sale of gas-powered cars in an effort to address climate change and push drivers toward electric vehicles. But that means we’ll need more raw materials to build electric car batteries – like lithium, which is typically sourced and refined abroad – until now.

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LET’S CONNECT:

[merdith]

The should start digging in California and building chemical plants in California and let them deal with the waste.

[mypriusisfaster]

Electric cars in California is braindead. As a resident, how the hell will we even charge them if more people go EV? We already have selective blackouts districts/neighborhoods in summer due to overloading the grid. Higher cost in certain times of the day and a weak power grid cause our nonoperating power plants are not "green".

[quinntang]

Gas powered cars will come back in the future.

[vintuitive]

It’s all bad for the environment and twice as expensive. I’m not willing to have my car battery blow up randomly thanks. Lithium batteries blow up under certain weather conditions. They don’t do well under extreme heat or cold. And there’s no infrastructure for any of it. You would have to install stations at all gas station around the nation. The electric cars back in the 90’s we’re going but then GMC decided to scrap all of them because it wasn’t profitable. Electric cars destroy more of the environment than any gas car.

[isaiahsspontaneouscontent]

Well the process for making a battery is a great example that it's not good.

[legendarysayainbroly]

The batteries will leave lots of batteries in dumps leading to more poltion

[Bob-fzpd]

All electric engines are gas powered. Every one of them.

[lepidoptera]

The same FUD as 20 years ago. Nothing has changed.

[clairecar]

If the modules on the sea floor are full of metals, use a magnet to pick them up instead of disturbing the ecosystem.

[klokoloko]

You called copper nicker and cobalt rare earth minerals?
You do not know what you talking about.

Yes. We need more diesel powered cars on the road.

[Kryptons_takeoff]

Eco friendly is getting meteors from space for lithium

[tess]

Since Lithium is an element it has limited supply, the whole idea reinforces the pos WWII way of living, commuting using highways in individual vehicles. Besides Lithium fires are very hard to extinguish (more cars more accidents more fires), it burns with a distinctive red flame, and water makes it worse

[greyangelpilot]

Battery Tech today, is not what it will be in just 3-5 years. Solid State and other developments will create more efficient ways to mine, fabricte & Lithium, CO & other elements. Batteries & their respective elements will become less & less over time. Battery Tech is Not Static, but evolving quickly !

[mistery-ed]

The only real way to solve the problem is an almost total die out of humankind. Either that or a return to preindustrial times.

[johnhoeppner]

It's very unlikely that mining Lithium, Cobalt, and all the other metals required to make EV batteries and motors will ever happen in the US so to eliminate all ICE cars by 2035 ain't gonna happen. The government will have to make deals with China and a few other countries that may not want to cooperate with our political goals. And where will all the new energy come from - nuke plants? Who's going to pay for the huge increase in power generation and infrastructure? Government has never been any good at planning and cost analysis so the goals thrown down from high are just hyperbole and the promise of Zero Emissions through a rapid wholesale shift to EV's highlights how misinformed the government really is.

[ThePearsch]

Mandating EV is a Violation of 'Right to travel', 10th & 14th Amendment

[MrForlines]

You left out the most important part. The radioactive cobalt! Tell us what we've won! The battery has no power without pumping electric current into that radioactive substance! When you batteries hold no more charge, guess what? Your wearing the reason all over and inside you! Surprise!

[michaelkitchen]

I think when it takes 250 barrels of oil to process everything made for an electric vehicle you need to get about 1, 000, 000 miles or more out of that vehicle to break even. Then you still have to worry about the obvious. How long can you drive in the cold ? How much are they gonna jack up electricity now that they’ve got you by the balls for these charging stations?

[andyjohnson]

Mining for anything is bad for the environment, there are some times better ways to do it but the Key Answer is to gather and recycle as much of the elements as possible for reuse into a more circular manufacturing and economy.

Batteries are recyclable fossil fuels are not. Go Li-Cycle ♻️🌲🌍🌎🌳♻️