The Truth about Electric Cars

 The push is towards electric cars. Why? It has little to do with the environment, but all with who controls the mineral rights of what metals are used to make the batteries. Lithium, nickel, cooper, and cobalt mining are a a nasty business. The rivers of the Salmon-Challis National Forest in Idaho are heavily polluted, the result of cobalt from the 1940s into the 1980s. And this is just one heavy metal used in an electric car's production.

If the concerns were for the environment, they would find an alternative to electric cars. There is one, alcohol. Ethanol, the kind of alcohol we drink was used as a fuel in a motor vehicle in Ford Model T in 1908. Prior to that, Nicolaus Otto, inventor of the modern 4 cycle engine used it as a fuel source. It burns clean. Opponents claim it produces too much CO2 in its production, but this unlikely as those are emissions are already produced by growing the crops needed. And regardless, its emissions would have less environmental impact in my opinion than the mining of heavy metals.

Why isn't the government exploring alcohol? There's no money in it for them. Large corporations own the mineral rights of most of the world. They are the ones benefiting from electric cars. The ones producing grain used to make the ethanol for alcohol fueled cars would be American farmers. American farmers have very little political clout compared to large corporations though. Sadly, we are selling our environment again to benefit a few, and ignoring the needs of the many. Years from now when the rivers are more toxic than ever, maybe we will learn.