The Limits of Electric Cars and the Benefits of Transit Solutions in Addressing Climate Change

Environment Policy #174| By: Damian DeSola | September 09, 2024

Featured Photo: www.thehill.com

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With the climate crisis becoming increasingly desperate, the push to implement alternatives to traditional emissions producing technology has come to the forefront of national policy. One effort is given immense focus, electric vehicles.

The Biden administration has been a major player in pushing for an EV future. In 2021, the administration strengthened tailpipe emissions regulations. This was along with an executive order seeking to ensure that 50% of all vehicles sold in the U.S. are electric by 2030.

California is one of the country’s largest advocates for the movement towards EV totality. The state has an ambitious target, where in two years they will require 35% of vehicles sold per year to have zero tailpipe emissions, followed by a plan to ensure that all light duty vehicles sold have zero emissions by 2035, little more than ten years from writing.

These regulations have prompted major car companies, such as Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis, to begin producing electric car models. However, there have been modifications in these policies, turning to hybrids to satisfy consumer demands. Newer companies such as Tesla, Rivian, Lucid Motors, focus entirely on EV production.

These policies have sparked fierce debate. Gas car advocates point to the burden-shifting of emissions from cars to powerplants; in 2023 83% of energy consumed in the U.S. was produced by non-renewables. This is alongside ideas that battery production produces high emissions, making EVs pollutive as well.

EV production requires six times more minerals compared to the average car. Minerals like cobalt, lithium, and nickel need to be mined and refined, using energy that produces emissions. Though, it should be noted that this pollution is a small fraction of emissions produced by oil extraction each year. These mines also offer poor working conditions, low wages, child labor, and mineral-poisoned water supplies for the African communities that supply them.

EV advocates point to how EVs initially start with comparatively high emissions, but lessen over time as the vehicle is driven. This is backed up by estimates from the EPA  that show that overall consumption of energy by EVs is far less than gas cars, leading to lower emissions. Advocates see EVs as the immediate solution to transportation emissions.

Finally, the anti-car group focuses on energy usage per passenger, arguing that public transit solutions can reliably and efficiently reduce emissions. This is the stance in the analysis section of this brief.

Analysis

The popular perception that EV cars are a definitive answer to the climate problem, rather than a stopgap, is a shortsighted mindset (see above). We can all appreciate the importance of getting gas-guzzling cars off roads using the EV strategy. However, only transit-oriented strategies of transportation development can fix the environmental detriments of cars, whether EV or gas.

A major reason cars are not a green mode of transportation has little to do with the car itself, but with the roads it drives upon. A study found that the Chinese manufacturing of asphalt used for roads releases 52.2 million kilograms of CO2e for just 20km of road. These roads are also damaged by the cars that drive on them, requiring more asphalt to fix them.

It has also been discovered that increasing the number of lanes on roads to reduce traffic increases said traffic in the long term. Building lanes results in comfortable driving, leading to more people buying more cars, resulting in more roads and emissions.

Fortunately, there is an alternative that solves all these stated problems. Transit-oriented solutions are energy efficient, require less land use, and do not inherently harm the environment. Through direct energy transfer via overhead wire or third-rail, trains, trams, and even some buses, can move hundreds of people across and between cities.

Mass transit has the benefit of a lower energy-per-person cost, far more energy efficient when compared to cars. Such efficiency would reduce our carbon footprint even as the slow shift from traditional fuels to renewables takes place. Bike lanes and accessible walkways are also effective means of providing transportation opportunities that have little to no impact on the environment.

The policies that state and federal governments, and private industry, should be taking are improvements to infrastructure and development of new infrastructure to remove the necessity of cars from our transportation system. By incentivizing cities and towns across the country to build or improve transit access, bike safety, and walkability, regions will naturally reduce their reliance on automobiles. Thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and future-proofing our transportation system for an era of carbon neutrality.

Engagement Resources

• An EPA interactive site that shows how your power grid generates electricity.
• Website for Strong Towns, an organization dedicated to advocating for building towns and cities around pedestrians and transit rather than cars.
• A website for the unique city-building project “Culdesac” that aims to develop an entire town in Tempe, AZ, built for transit and pedestrians.