EDITORIAL: How electricity will make the air safer to breathe

Cars and trucks running on gasoline and diesel fuel copious amounts of air pollution that is dangerous to humans. They are the largest source of carbon monoxide in the U.S. as an ingredient of tailpipe emissions that are a stew of toxic elements that threaten human health, including volatile organic compounds, nitrogen oxide that creates ozone and smog, black carbon (also known as soot) and particulate matter, all of which can be a cause of cancer, heart disease, asthma and birth defects.

Notice that there is no mention of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in this indictment based on data processed by the Environmental Protection Agency. The takeaway from this is that the conversion to electric vehicles is a benefit to mankind even without considering climate change. Opponents of EVs who are also climate change deniers (the few who are left) might keep that in mind.

Climate change, of course, is the main driver of the march to electric vehicles. Gas and diesel-fueled vehicles have been cited in scientific findings as the biggest source of the carbon in the atmosphere that is overheating the planet. It follows then that using electricity instead of fossil fuel to power cars, trucks and buses is the most potent means available to stave off the consequences of global warming.

A milestone on Wisconsin’s road trip to EVs was reached in mid-March when the governor signed two bills passed by bipartisan votes in the Legislature that will qualify the state for federal funding for a network of charging stations on major highways. Nearly $80 million will be available to the state to assist private businesses build high-speed charging facilities about 50 miles apart on designated highways.

The need for such charging networks was emphasized when the Biden administration released tailpipe rules for passenger cars and light trucks intended to accelerate the move to electric vehicles to the point where 35% to 56% of vehicles will be EVs by 2032. Last year, 16% of the new vehicles sold were EVs or gas-electric hybrids.

The rules are less stringent than those proposed last year by the EPA and allow for plug-in hybrids to be factored into tailpipe emission goals. This was a wise move. Gas-electric hybrids, which typically get more than 50 miles per gallon, are popular with buyers, have aided the cause of carbon reduction and are an acceptable segue to pollution goals.

Though those goals have been moderated somewhat, they still require carbon emissions to be cut nearly in half in the next eight years, and that will be a steep climb, some of it against political headwinds. Donald Trump posted a social media statement saying supporters of “electric car lunacy should rot in hell.” He has told his followers at rallies that EVs will destroy the American auto industry at a cost of tens of thousands of jobs because it will not be able to compete with Chinese EV makers.

The union that represents nearly half of the car manufacturing employees in the U.S., the United Auto Workers, disagrees. A statement issued by UAW praised the new Biden administration rules as a “more feasible emissions rule that protects workers building vehicles, while providing a path forward for automakers to implement the full range of automotive technologies to reduce emissions.”

The American auto industry, which made a profit of $1.53 trillion in 2023, has dealt successfully over many years with a progression of technological advances while maintaining a strong, well paid workforce, and there is no reason to believe it will not be up to the EV challenge.

The National Automobile Dealers Association has stated, “Dealers are all in on EVs,” though the organization has expressed some wariness over rules that could make it harder to compete against foreign-built EVs. The provision in the new EPA standards for hybrids, which have been a big winner for dealers, should allay some of those concerns.

Unless the countries of the world throw up their hands in surrender and take their chances with the predicted cataclysms of climate change, it is inevitable that almost all passenger vehicles will one day be electricity powered. There’s not much point in arguing about them now. Besides, the EV transformation will come with a bonus—air that is safer to breathe.