Newsom’s mandate on electric vehicles will do more harm than good

Courtesy of Business Insider

Lithium mining has increased exponentially over the past few decades– and we will have to face the consequences of it sooner or later

In an attempt to combat the planet’s continuously rising carbon emissions, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order mandating the purchase of new gasoline-powered vehicles be halted by 2035. Although at first glance this order may seem beneficial in the fight against climate change, there are several issues — both financial and, ironically, environmental — rooted within the idealistic and unrealistic nature of Newsom’s new mandate.

One of the major issues with the mandate is the financial aspect of making expensive electric vehicles the sole option for residents. According to an article in the Observer, the average cost of buying a gas vehicle is around $44,000 while the average cost for an electric vehicle is around $67,000. 

And although some may argue that going electric will save consumers’ money in the long run because they’re not filling up their gas tank, other costs undermine this hopeful equation. According to calculations that factor in a car’s original cost, the average annual cost to maintain a gas vehicle is $8,691, while the cost of maintaining an electric vehicle is about $10,360. 

Newsom’s new mandate will not only place financial burden on the consumers, but it will also prove crippling for the car companies. First of all, the automaking industry makes up 3% of the global economy, and we’ve seen in the past that slowdowns in the auto industry also lead to problems in the global economy and supply chain. For example, the automobile part shortage 2 years ago cost many people their jobs and $210 billion in economic loss. 

Second, facing such a strict mandate, car makers might revolt and could just stop selling the necessary volume of vehicles here. 

On the environmental side, EVs also have their downsides: namely, the  overmining of rare earth metals like lithium in countries such as Venezuela and Brazil. 

Mining a ton of lithium takes approximately 2.2 million liters of water and has a dangerous risk of polluting local water sources, according to the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. Extracting these materials is extremely energy-intensive and massively degrades the land that the mining takes place on. 

Although the mining of these minerals may not be as harmful to the whole environment as gas-powered cars, the initial environmental footprint of electric vehicles is worse at the beginning of the vehicle’s lifespan. There are even some batteries that have a shorter lifespan than the time it takes to pay back the carbon footprint, which completely defeats the purpose of electric vehicles. 

 Scientists warn that we are reaching the point when climate change becomes irreversible and this massive undertaking to convert the auto industry to electric might just be what completely tips the scale. 

So far most Californians have yet to consider the real-world implications of Newsom’s mandate. Taking smaller positive steps one at a time is much better than imposing such a drastic restriction on Californians.