Gunter: Entire Federal Push for EVs and Eco Regulations a Scam
May 7th 2023
Regular readers will know I have no objection, per se, to electric vehicles.
I don’t care if my next car or truck is powered by jam sandwiches, just so long as it can go as far between charges as my current internal combustion-powered truck (800 kilometres), be recharged in the same amount of time it takes me to refuel (five to seven minutes) and work just as well as in Alberta winters. For the same price.
What bugs me most about EVs is the sanctimony around them — that somehow they’re a more moral choice — and the compulsory way the Trudeau government is forcing them on us.
I drive too much outside the city, and too far, for an EV to be practical. But my wife mostly uses her car for commuting, so we thought we should upgrade the electrical panels in our home from 100 amps to 200 to accommodate a rapid charger, in case she buys an EV in the future.
Sources at the city and EPCOR have warned me, too, that permits for 200-amp services will soon be cut off because the grid just can’t take more than a few homes per neighbourhood with rapid-charging stations.
Forewarned, we had an electrician come out Thursday to look at our wiring and panels. Boy did I learn quickly another reason why the forced conversion to EVs is doomed to fail.
Right off the top, the electrician said we can’t have 200-amp service because our neighbourhood has no overhead powerlines. Everything is underground.
He suggested a power regulator attached to our basement panel would enable us to climb to 125 amps — enough for an overnight charger. The drawback, though, is that on a hot night, the power regulator would shut off the air conditioners to keep the charger going. Or vice versa.
If we ever decide to get an EV, on sweltering nights we’ll have to choose between tossing and turning all night or driving to work the next morning on half a charge.
Also, the power regulator needed to get our home’s amps up just 25 per cent would require us to change our electrical meter. Our meter is embedded in the foundation and would require masonry work and cutting and coring to change.
To upgrade our system to just a slow charger for one EV (not two) would cost in excess of $10,000. And that’s even before we pay for a charging station.
Who’s got that kind of money?
Maybe the city of Edmonton knows this, which is why they’re building all those bike lanes.
The other thing that truly angers me about the federal push for new eco-regulations and programs is the obvious made-up nature of a lot of the stats governments and environmentalists fling around.
Take, for instance, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s claim at a “green” conference on Wednesday that the economic and social costs of carbon emissions are actually five times higher than previously thought.
I’m sorry, but he and his bureaucrats, with help from radical environmentalists, simply pulled that number out of the air.
On Thursday, federal Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco said the federal government doesn’t even know whether its myriad environmental regulations are actually reducing greenhouse emissions. Indeed, we appear to be the only G7 country in which emissions are increasing.
How can the Liberals and their eco-buddies say with complete certainty that emissions are five time costlier than previously thought (which sounds like an excuse to raise the carbon tax), when on the other hand have no clue whether their expensive and economically damaging “green” programs are having a beneficial impact.
You cannot calculate one while simultaneously claiming to be incapable of even guesstimating the other.
The whole exercise is a scam.
Credits to Edmonton Sun, Lorne Gunter
www.msn.com
I don’t care if my next car or truck is powered by jam sandwiches, just so long as it can go as far between charges as my current internal combustion-powered truck (800 kilometres), be recharged in the same amount of time it takes me to refuel (five to seven minutes) and work just as well as in Alberta winters. For the same price.
What bugs me most about EVs is the sanctimony around them — that somehow they’re a more moral choice — and the compulsory way the Trudeau government is forcing them on us.
I drive too much outside the city, and too far, for an EV to be practical. But my wife mostly uses her car for commuting, so we thought we should upgrade the electrical panels in our home from 100 amps to 200 to accommodate a rapid charger, in case she buys an EV in the future.
Sources at the city and EPCOR have warned me, too, that permits for 200-amp services will soon be cut off because the grid just can’t take more than a few homes per neighbourhood with rapid-charging stations.
Forewarned, we had an electrician come out Thursday to look at our wiring and panels. Boy did I learn quickly another reason why the forced conversion to EVs is doomed to fail.
Right off the top, the electrician said we can’t have 200-amp service because our neighbourhood has no overhead powerlines. Everything is underground.
He suggested a power regulator attached to our basement panel would enable us to climb to 125 amps — enough for an overnight charger. The drawback, though, is that on a hot night, the power regulator would shut off the air conditioners to keep the charger going. Or vice versa.
If we ever decide to get an EV, on sweltering nights we’ll have to choose between tossing and turning all night or driving to work the next morning on half a charge.
Also, the power regulator needed to get our home’s amps up just 25 per cent would require us to change our electrical meter. Our meter is embedded in the foundation and would require masonry work and cutting and coring to change.
To upgrade our system to just a slow charger for one EV (not two) would cost in excess of $10,000. And that’s even before we pay for a charging station.
Who’s got that kind of money?
Maybe the city of Edmonton knows this, which is why they’re building all those bike lanes.
The other thing that truly angers me about the federal push for new eco-regulations and programs is the obvious made-up nature of a lot of the stats governments and environmentalists fling around.
Take, for instance, federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s claim at a “green” conference on Wednesday that the economic and social costs of carbon emissions are actually five times higher than previously thought.
I’m sorry, but he and his bureaucrats, with help from radical environmentalists, simply pulled that number out of the air.
On Thursday, federal Environment Commissioner Jerry DeMarco said the federal government doesn’t even know whether its myriad environmental regulations are actually reducing greenhouse emissions. Indeed, we appear to be the only G7 country in which emissions are increasing.
How can the Liberals and their eco-buddies say with complete certainty that emissions are five time costlier than previously thought (which sounds like an excuse to raise the carbon tax), when on the other hand have no clue whether their expensive and economically damaging “green” programs are having a beneficial impact.
You cannot calculate one while simultaneously claiming to be incapable of even guesstimating the other.
The whole exercise is a scam.
Credits to Edmonton Sun, Lorne Gunter
www.msn.com
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