The real price of failed Biden electric vehicle spending

 

Here are the facts from one of my latest videos, which can be found on Rumble.

The Biden Administration continuously pushes electric vehicles, though they are bad for the environment, international politics, and the economy. They are yet again wasting tax money on another scheme for the EVs, with this time working to force smaller companies to buy into this failed concept. Wasting tax dollars is increasing inflation and not going to get paid back in an efficient way, with the “fact” sheet showing they do not have a true concept of economics or a free market. Here are the facts and why this is a waste of money.

Democrat Plan

Here, via the White House “fact” sheet, is what the Biden Administration is doing with tax dollars.

The Department of Energy will set aside $50 million of its Automotive Conversion Grants Program for partnerships with states to help small- and medium-sized suppliers convert from manufacturing internal combustion engine parts to manufacturing parts for the EV supply chain. This funding will maintain the Domestic Conversion Grant’s same focus on supporting retooling to keep good, good-paying and union jobs in the same communities as automakers and auto suppliers transition to electric vehicle manufacturing here in America. The Department of Energy recently requested public input on the design of these state-federal partnerships in order to best support small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the auto supply chain.

The Department of Energy is setting aside up to $50 million of its Industrial Assessments Center Implementation Grants Program to help auto suppliers kickstart manufacturing diversification and conversion projects. Specifically, this program, which was funded by President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is covered under the President’s Justice40 Initiative, provides grants of up to $300,000 to entities that have received an Industrial Assessment Center assessment to improve their facilities’ energy and material efficiency, cybersecurity, or productivity, or reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.

The Small Business Administration will leverage its Small Business Investment Company program to catalyze millions of dollars in private capital for the EV supply chain to help small and medium-sized manufacturers grow and diversify their businesses. The Department of Energy will partner with the Small Business Administration to provide technical expertise to de-risk private investments and lower the cost of capital for small and medium-sized manufacturers.

The Small Business Administration plans to establish a new Working Capital Pilot Program under its signature 7(a) lending program to provide lines of credit to small businesses, including auto parts manufacturers and distributors, to support their domestic or export finance needs. The program will be paired with business counseling from the Small Business Administration.

Liberal News

Here, via PBS, is what they are saying about EVs.

The thing is that E.V.s are still growing in sales. You look at E.V. sales, they are on the upward trajectory. It's just maybe not as steep as we thought two years ago, because I think it was easy to get swept up in a new technology. It was very exciting. Sales were accelerating.

And it just doesn't work that way in the long run with the new technology. The more vehicles you sell, the harder people will become to convert. You start losing some of those early adopters that wanted to get in early and more of the mass market starts to buy the vehicle. And those people are a bit pickier with their money and ask a lot more questions and have a lot more concerns.

So, it's not a surprise that it's slowing. I just think it's good to remember that they're still growing, just maybe not as fast as we thought.

Here is what CNBC has to say on the vehicles.

For years, the automotive industry has been in a state of EV euphoria. Automakers trotted out optimistic sales forecasts for electric models and announced ambitious targets for EV growth. Wall Street boosted valuations for legacy automakers and startup entrants alike, based in part on their visions for an EV future.

Now the hype is dwindling, and companies are again cheering consumer choice. Automakers from Ford Motor and General Motors to Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin are scaling back or delaying their electric vehicle plans.

Even U.S. EV leader Tesla, which is estimated to have accounted for 55% of EV sales in the country in 2023, is bracing for what “may be a notably lower” rate of growth, CEO Elon Musk said in late January.

The broad return to a more mixed offering of vehicles — with lineups of gas-powered vehicles alongside hybrids and fully-electric options — still assumes an all-electric future, eventually, but at a much slower pace of adoption than previously expected.

Here is what CNN is saying about this former pie in the sky dream.

Tesla has been slashing prices. Ford just cut the price of its Mustang Mach-E, too, plus it cut back production of its electric pickup. And General Motors is thinking about bringing back plug-in hybrids, possibly taking a step back from GM’s earlier commitment to shifting straight to pure EVs.

And now the EPA is considering slowing down requirements for automakers to sell more electric vehicles, dialing back what had been aggressive plans to move away from gas powered cars and SUVs.

To be clear: The American market for EVs is not collapsing. In the last quarter of 2023, EV sales were up 40% from the same quarter a year before, according to Cox Automotive. In fact, EV sales in the United States hit a record last year, topping 1 million for the first time.

But the EV market has nevertheless become a major disappointment. There is a troubling gap between expectations and reality.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance, for instance, had projected sales of 1.7 million plug-in vehicles in 2023, but only 1.46 million ultimately sold. (BNEF’s figures include plug-in hybrids, but the large majority are fully electric vehicles.) The trend line isn’t slanting upward as sharply as many had predicted so the industry is lowering future estimates.

International Trade

Here, via an Energy X blog, is where the materials for the EVs are coming from.

China currently dominates the global EV and EV supply-chain market, but global governments are vying to secure their own supply chains. When it comes to the components that make up these batteries, they can be traced back to several specific countries. Half of the world’s cobalt originates from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Indonesia, Australia, and Brazil make up the lion’s share of global nickel reserves, and South America’s ‘Lithium Triangle’ consisting of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina hold 75% of the world’s lithium. Rising demand for lithium has also led to further explorations – this has uncovered new deposits in Mexico, Iran, Afghanistan and India, but the infrastructure to mine and process the metal is nonexistent.

A 2023 report by Bloomberg highlighted that through its long-term investing in established battery markets and influence in emerging markets in South America and Africa, China could control a third of the world’s lithium by 2025. Beijing’s shadow has loomed ominously over major economies shifting to battery-heavy technology, and its dominance on markets is leading countries like France to create fully-integrated supply chains from mine to battery that could curb reliance on China’s services. EnergyX has actively sought to implement a similar integrated supply chain in the United States, where lithium production is still too low to meet domestic demands, and Washington has provided little indication of where it intends to secure its supply.

While sourcing lithium for batteries is a primary issue, solutions for their end of life are actively being developed. At the moment, recycling makes up a negligible portion of EV batteries, but the industry is confident that once the market matures, recycled materials will have an important impact on the manufacturing process. Castelvecchi continues, “Battery and carmakers are already spending billions of dollars on reducing the costs of manufacturing and recycling electric-vehicle (EV) batteries. National research funders have also founded centres to study better ways to make and recycle batteries, […] a key goal is to develop processes to recover valuable metals cheaply enough to compete with freshly mined ones.

Congo Instability 

It is bad enough that Afghanistan and Iran will be brought into the picture with these vehicles, but few actually understand what is happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where Cobalt comes from for most of the world.

Here, via a UN news release, is what has been happening in the DRC.

The camps were in the neighbourhoods of Lac Vert and Mugunga, near Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu, which has seen a sharp uptick in violence over the past few months.

UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq told journalists at UN Headquarters in New York that the situation around Goma continues to remain very tense, with at least 11 incidents involving explosives reported since February.

Bintou Keita, Special Representative of the Secretary General for DRC and the head of MONUSCO, condemned the violence against civilians and called on all parties to the conflict to adhere to international humanitarian law and protect civilians, Mr. Haq added.

The escalating violence in North Kivu in the country’s east has triggered a massive exodus to Goma, which now hosts over 500,000 people who have been displaced.

“Despite the volatile situation and insecurity, we and our partners continue to provide assistance,” Mr. Haq said, also noting the need for additional funding to reach those in need with aid.

He said the 2024 Humanitarian Response Plan seeking $2.6 billion is only 17 per cent funded at $430 million. Fully funded, the plan aims to provide 8.7 million people with humanitarian assistance and protection.

Here, via the BBC, is how the Congolese President was elected and reelected.

President Félix Tshisekedi won a second term in the December 2023 elections, which we condemned as a "sham" by several opposition candidates.

The president won about 73% of the vote, with his nearest challenger, Moise Katumbi, on 18%, officials said. The election was marred by widespread logistical problems. It had to be extended to a second day in some parts of the country.

About two-thirds of polling stations opened late, while 30% of voting machines did not work on the first day of the vote, according to an observer group.

The opposition said the problems were part of a deliberate plan to allow the results to be rigged in favour of Mr Tshisekedi, 60.

Mr Tshisekedi became president in January 2019 after protracted political wrangling in the wake of a controversial election in December 2018. He succeeded Joseph Kabila, who had become president when his own father Laurent was assassinated in 2001.

President Tshisekedi also comes from a political dynasty, as his father Étienne was opposition leader and later prime minister under the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1980s and 1990s.

Here, via a Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect report, is another view of the Congo.

Various armed groups have exploited the absence or weakness of state authority in eastern DRC to perpetrate attacks against civilians for decades. Rampant impunity and competition for control of profitable minerals have enabled the proliferation of such groups. Ethnically motivated and deliberate attacks by armed groups against displaced Congolese have led to waves of secondary displacement while sexual violence is once again being used as a weapon of war to terrorize and control communities affected by conflict.

Amid widespread violence across the eastern provinces, the withdrawal of MONUSCO has raised concerns regarding the future of civilian protection. The drawdown of MONUSCO from areas where peacekeepers regularly patrolled may exacerbate an existing security and protection vacuum, putting civilians at further risk. FARDC offensives often trigger violent reprisals by armed groups who target civilians. By routinely integrating members of armed groups who have been implicated in past crimes into the FARDC, the government has encouraged impunity, while posing risks to civilians.

The UNSC-mandated Panel of Experts on DRC and several others have alleged that Rwanda supported M23 in 2013 and has provided logistical support and fought alongside the group during its resurgence since November 2021. M23’s renewed offensive has aggravated regional tensions and provoked an increase in hate speech and incitement to discrimination in DRC, particularly targeting Tutsis/Banyarwanda individuals and others. UN officials have warned about the potential for a direct confrontation between DRC and Rwanda.

The United States needs to allow the free market to determine the viability of electric vehicles, as the manner the Democrats are handling is making the situation look bad. There needs to be a look into the waste of money, as this is leading to more and more issues, with no positives happening. People need to know the facts, as this is leading to more international instability, not less. Real free market approaches, not Banana War situations, leads to real growth and progress. So, how do you like this method of spending your money?

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