Tudor Dixon Was Right- Gov. Whitmer’s Takedown of Line 5 Would Be Catastrophic
Oct 19, 2022 – Originally published in 100 Percent Fed Up
Authored by Becky Behrends, M.D; Vice President of Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (MC4EI)
Republican candidate for Governor Tudor Dixon and incumbent Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently faced off in their first gubernatorial debate.
One of the hot-button issues they discussed was the shutdown of Line 5 in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. This pipeline is critical in providing propane gas to the citizens of the UP to heat their homes for the winter season. Michigan is the largest propane-consuming state in the US.
The clock is ticking as to when this shutdown might occur, as the case is tied up in federal litigation between Michigan and Enbridge, the pipeline builder. The pipeline is 69 years old and in need of repairs. Enbridge, a Canadian company, has proposed building a Great Lakes Tunnel to house Line 5. It would be private investment, with no taxpayer dollars involved. But Governor Whitmer has waffled on whether to accept this proposal. She also wants to shut down the pipeline now before the replacement tunnel is built. Gas prices would soar and impact home heating and car and plane travel, among other concerns.
So what about electric cars?
The Biden administration’s response regarding the financial blow to the poor and middle classes from the high cost of gas is this – Just buy an electric car! (Minor detail- the average price tag is $60,000). Sort of a liberal elitist “let ‘em eat cake” response.
And what about these facts?
Electric vehicle (EV) tires wear out much fast than gas-powered vehicles.
Why? Because EVs are heavier mainly due to heavy batteries.
EV batteries are VERY expensive if/when they go bad. In a gas-powered car, a battery can be replaced for less than $200 an hour, and it weighs less than 30 lbs. With an EV, since the battery weighs more than 1,000 lbs. you need heavy equipment to remove it. Cost can range from $3,000 to $18,000!
Lithium batteries used in EVs require an enormous amount of water to extract the lithium from mines. One ton of lithium requires 500,000 gallons of water in the process! This has environmental consequences. Lithium mining has been linked to hotter temperatures, increasing drought, and declining vegetation because of the huge requirement for pumping water into the mine.
Lithium battery mining has been determined to be worse for the climate than the production of fossil fuel vehicle batteries.
What happens when the EV batteries wear out? Recycle them? Put them in landfills with the risk of environmental contamination? This problem has not been solved yet.
An EV only gets less than 100 miles per charge and can take 4 to 8 hrs to fully charge. That will put a damper on spring break trips to Disney World!
There are not enough charging stations to facilitate a mass conversion over to EVs. The infrastructure to accomplish this and replace existing gas stations is logistically staggering.
“Electric cars are coal-powered cars.” That’s right, CO2-emitting coal power plants are needed to create electric cars in the first place. So the idea that EVs “protect the environment” by leaving a “zero carbon footprint” is bogus and false advertising.
Meanwhile, Chinese companies have been stockpiling vast supplies of the raw materials that go inside EV batteries. According to the New York Times, “That dominance has stirred fears in Washington that Detroit could someday be rendered obsolete, and that Beijing could control American driving in the 21st century the way oil-producing nations sometimes could in the 20th”.
Here is a problem that Hurricane Ian unleashed with electric vehicles.
Did you know that EVs submerged in saltwater can catch fire? Saltwater hastens corrosion in these batteries. They can explode! It has been reported that EVs burned down homes in the wake of the disastrous hurricane! Here is what one Florida fire official said:
“A typical car fire in the past would be one tank of water from our engine and would be less than an hour job. Pretty routine. With these EVs, we’re finding it takes hours to cool the batteries to keep them out of a runaway situation. It just ties up resources a lot longer, and in some cases where we don’t have a water source, we have to secure the area and let them burn.”
The Biden administration is calling for 50% of all cars sold in America by 2030 to be EVs. That amounts to 50 million EVs on the road in the next 8 years. The problem is that there isn’t nearly enough electrical power available in our grids to fuel that many cars. Expect electric utility prices to soar and rolling brownouts to occur. Instead of a fossil fuel crisis, we would be facing an electricity-energy crisis!
The technology is not in place to make a full-scale transition to electric vehicles. In the meantime, too many politicians don’t care how miserable they make life for ordinary Americans as they shove utopian energy schemes down their throats. It is equivalent to throwing everyone off a cliff and expecting someone to develop a parachute on the way down.
Elections matter! Michigan citizens need to consider this when voting for governor in Michigan in the upcoming mid-term elections. Tudor Dixon was right to call out Governor Whitmer for pandering to the EV crowd.
Maybe voters need to send Whitmer the message that without affordable fuel in their homes, there will be no cake baking! We need common-sense politicians who care about their fellow Americans. Maybe that is why Donald Trump’s “America First” approach has resonated with so many Americans!