“Safety and environmental concerns have been used by the administration to kill or delay fossil fuel energy projects such as offshore drilling and the Keystone XL pipeline to bring Canadian tar sands oil and a minimum of 20,00 jobs to the U.S. market. Will electric car technology receive the same level of scrutiny and concern?”
Investor’s Business Daily editorializes,
… In 2006, computer notebook manufacturers including Dell and Apple recalled millions of laptops due to problems with lithium batteries overheating and catching fire, with users suffering burns. Some reported incidents involved property damage.
We don’t yet fully comprehend the hazards to drivers, passengers and first responders after, say, a collision between an electric clown car and an 18-wheeler. Then there’s a whole new problem of disposing of a new generation of batteries using lithium.
Obtaining the lithium for these batteries involves mining and “scarring the earth” as much as mining coal, which for the foreseeable future will generate much of our electricity. And we likely will be as dependent on foreign, and sometimes unfriendly, sources of lithium as we are for oil.
Perhaps the Obama administration would like, as with the Keystone XL pipeline, to study and reflect on the safety and environmental issues involving electric cars until after the November 2012 election.
Paul Krugman should pay attention to these environmental issues as he knocks fossil fuel production while carrying water for the solar industry.