We’ve all been hearing the promises of how electric vehicles (EVs) are going to save the world. And, maybe they will even help us improve the environment…slightly. One analysis showed that all the cars and trucks in the U.S. accounted for only 2 percent of global emissions—not a huge number.

But, what won’t work is government-enforced mandates that pick winners and losers in the auto industry and force impractical choices on consumers that don’t want them.

And, those mandates are based on the most uncertain of scientific predictions. As noted energy author Mark Mills puts it: “No one knows how much, if at all, CO2 emissions will decline as EV use rises. Every claim for EVs reducing emissions is a rough estimate or an outright guess based on averages, approximations, or aspirations.”

No one knows what effect increased mining and processing of the materials necessary for EV batteries—mostly done by big global polluter China—will have on emissions. No one knows what effect a huge new demand for electricity from a build out of EV charging stations will have. No one knows, if in the end, these new energy demands might completely cancel out any emission reductions from banning gasoline vehicles.

No one knows.

 These mandates will have little to no impact on global CO2 emissions. But, they will cause tremendous harm to the $4 trillion dollar American auto industry that supports millions of jobs. All this when the average working family will never be able to afford an EV with a current average price tag near $40,000. That’s certainly not affordable energy, by TEA’s measure.

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