How the Right’s Hatred of Electric Vehicles Is Growing in Iowa

October 06, 2022

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by Ty Rushing (Iowa Starting Line) Over the last few months, the Starting Line team has noticed an interesting trend in Iowa social media: Stories about electric vehicles drive huge engagement and draw intense debate among supporters and detractors, mostly on Facebook.

And while wild comment threads on Facebook stories is nothing new, the sheer ferocity on EV-related stories, even if it’s a routine, bland article, has become noteworthy.

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Some Fox News headlines about electric vehicles from the last year include:

Even a Fox News story on the Sept. 27 announcement about the US Department of Transportation approving states’ electric vehicle infrastructure plans dedicated a lot of room to talk about how most states are unprepared for an influx of EVs and tied them to elitism:

“Currently, electric vehicle owners charge their vehicles at home 80% of the time, typically at single-family houses,” the article says. “But that is likely to change as the less affluent who don’t have a garage to house a charging station buy EVs.”

The elitism argument is an interesting one because it can be convincing. The average price of a new EV in 2022 is nearly $67,000, which is about the same average price people paid for a new luxury vehicle, according to Kelley Blue Book. However, they are getting cheaper, with the starting price for a Chevrolet Bolt is just under $27,000, while several other brands have options in the mid-$30,000s.

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Other anti-EV talking points we’ve seen on Iowa social media include:

The batteries are made in or are sourced from China/how do you dispose of dead EV batteries?
They won’t perform well in winter.
Electric grids aren’t prepared for them.
Not practical in rural areas.
EVs are part of a forced climate change agenda/The Green New Deal.
Why should the government pay for charging stations/offer EV tax credits?

While some of the talking points do raise valid questions about the practicality of EVs in certain spaces, what if it simply boils down to people on the right hate EVs because lefties like them?

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The biggest electric car brand in America is Tesla, which is led by Musk. The Tesla CEO has become a scourge to liberals and a hero to folks on the right who see him as a champion of freedom and free speech.

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“There aren’t that many people in West Virginia anymore employed by the coal industry, but any attempts to modernize electric production, power production is seen as this existential threat to the coal history of the state,” he (Dr. Dave Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University) said.

“That seems to get tied up into part of what’s going on in Iowa.” READ MORE

As EV sales grow, battle over U.S. road weight limits heats up (Reuters)

U.S. shift on child labor may scramble EV sector: The Department of Labor said it would add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor — a move with possible implications for solar and electric vehicle technologies. (Politico Pro)

Electric Vehicles And The Impact On Infrastructure (Forbes)

Excerpt from Reuters: Car haulers are pushing the Biden administration and lawmakers to increase truck weight limits on U.S. highways so they can transport more heavy electric vehicles, a move fiercely opposed by the rail industry and safety advocates who say the heavier loads are significantly more dangerous.

Even before a recent spike in EV sales, U.S. roads have been carrying heavier loads, as cars and trucks climbed from an average of 3,200 pounds (1,451 kilos) to 4,200 pounds over the last four decades, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Electric vehicles, with their heavy batteries, weigh significantly more than gas-fueled cars. While they make up less than 1% of cars on U.S. roads, President Joe Biden wants EVs to reach half of vehicle sales by 2030, and he and his Democratic Party have put billions in federal funds behind the goal.

Car haulers, the pipeline of the auto industry, move thousands of cars each day from factory parking lots, ports and rail yards to dealers, often using open double-decker trailers. If decades-old U.S. road weight limits are not increased, it could slow deliveries and increase costs, putting at risk this historic bet on zero-emission vehicles, they say.

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Individual trailers are currently restricted by federal highway safety standards dating to 1975 to 80,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, including a truck and trailer that can account for half of the limit.

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The U.S. Department of Transportation declined to say whether it supports or opposes lifting weight limits on car haulers, noting the ultimate decision lies with Congress

Congressional committees overseeing transportation said they have yet to take a position on the issue.

However, Rodney Davis, a Republican lawmaker from Illinois who serves on the House Transportation Committee and is ranking member on the highway subcommittee, says he's working to increase weight limits.

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One industry idea is higher weights for up to 300 miles. Haulers often unload a car by then, putting them under the 80,000 pound limit. California, which just passed a law banning sales of gasoline-powered cars by 2035 read more , has done essentially that, increasing weight limits for trucks carrying goods in and out of its ports to ease supply-chain bottlenecks and clear containers off the docks of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Temporary permits starting in November of last year lift weight restrictions for trucks to 88,000 pounds. The state hasn't researched whether increasing the weight limits helped ease congestion or posed a safety risk. READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico Pro: The Biden administration declared Tuesday that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could upend the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of White House climate policies.

The Department of Labor said it would add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor under a 2006 human trafficking law. The decision was based on many batteries using cobalt, a mineral largely mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where children have been found to work at some mining sites.

The department released the list in the form of a report that excoriated “clean energy” supply chains for using forced labor. It grouped Chinese batteries together with polysilicon — a key material used in solar panel cells — made in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

About half the world’s polysilicon comes from Xinjiang but is banned from the United States due to concerns that it is produced by Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups through forced labor. Solar ingots — the term used for blocks of processed polysilicon — as well as wafers, cells and modules were also added to the list of goods made with forced or child labor, since many of those goods are made using Xinjiang polysilicon. READ MORE

Excerpt from Forbes: Electric cars weigh considerably more than gas-powered cars. For example, the Ford F-150 Lightning weighs 35% more than the gas-powered Ford F-150 truck. This overwhelming amount of added weight on our roads can directly cause more stress and may eventually result in the failure of our paved roads.

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While the everyday electric commuter will add additional stress to roads, the problem that really has agencies worried is car haulers. These large trucks are designed to carry around five to nine vehicles at once. The federal government currently has a restriction that limits car haulers to a gross weight of 80,000 pounds, including the truck and trailer that account for half of the vehicle’s weight. Many argue that this restriction is dated and prevents the delivery of these strongly desired vehicles—so much so that some truckers are lobbying for the federal government to increase the weight limits of these trucks so they can meet the demands of society.

Before discussing any sort of solution, it’s important for people to understand the state that our infrastructure is currently in. In 2021, American infrastructure earned a C- on the nation's Infrastructure Report Card. Importantly, the report highlighted that 43% of our roadways are in poor or mediocre condition. The fact of the matter is that our roads cannot withstand more damage if we want to maintain safety.

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According to Streetsblog California, repaving one mile of roadway can cost anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million. Aside from this large financial burden, repaving roads has serious environmental implications, from the fuel that equipment requires to the emissions that asphalt releases. While it’s difficult to accept that electric vehicles, with all of their benefits and potential, will also create problems that require resources and tax-paying dollars, we must acknowledge that fact and adapt. READ MORE