Experts weigh in on claim that electric cars have a mining problem: ‘It always makes me laugh.’ The mineral use for electric cars is actually far lower than gasoline and diesel’s when accounting for oil needed for fuel-burning cars. And the majority of battery minerals are likely to be recycled.
by mafco
6 comments
They also seem to bring up the landfilling issue associated with spent solar cells or wind turbine blades but seem to convienitly forget that in coal mining country they literally blow the tops off mountains and fill in drainages with what would be hazardous waste if the laws weren’t written with loopholes allowing those practices.
Nevermind coal ash ponds and the massive amount of effort to reconfigure those piles of again, hazardous waste under any other name, to not have groundwater flowing through the waste material, which energy companies are doing everything in their power to avoid responsibility for mitigating.
This was never a good argument but it was especially infuriating to hear it from the other side of the same mouths that were spewing “dig more holes” as our entire energy policy.
And when we eventually make a better battery it will be an even worse argument.
And how much fuel is used to electrically charge the car? Why do they leave that out?! That’s one of the most important aspects of owning an EV, how is the power generated to charge the batteries?
I am not anti-EV but I don’t like weak arguments.
“The International Energy Agency estimated that electric cars use 381 pounds more of minerals such as lithium, nickel, and copper compared to internal combustion engine cars.
However, scientists found that the mineral use for electric cars in the long run is actually far lower than gasoline and diesel’s mineral usage when accounting for oil needed for fuel-burning cars. “
What minerals are they comparing? What minerals do gasoline cars use? Is it in drilling, production, refining? This is just weak.
“Experts also describe another important factor that most are missing when addressing mineral usage of electric cars: The majority of battery minerals used in cars are likely to be recycled. This will drastically reduce the wasted material, compared with dirty energy sources, which are used up and create planet-warming pollution in the process.”
“The real thing people forget is once it has been mined, you will end up being able to reuse 80-90% of the metals. You don’t have to go back to the planet to steal more minerals.”
“People forget”, “Likely to be recycled” and “80-90% reusable” is for the moment wishful thinking. We would like this to be our future but at this point in time it isn’t. We cannot forget what has not happened as yet. There is nothing for us to forget.
EV’s are likely to be much less damaging to the environment than ICE vehicles but these arguments don’t help to make that case.
Any ICE car will consume many times its weight in petroleum in its lifetime. Not the case with EVs.
Emissions per mile of a gas car **increase** with mileage.
Emissions per mile of an EV **decrease** with mileage.
Not even worth discussing.
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