Granholm, Biden's expected Energy Department pick, could push electric cars
By: Associated Press via Autoblog
Electric cars ARE coming. We can listen to our usual cohort of "oh, no, no... nothing can be done!!" crybabies... or we can get to work.
It's strange... China is doing so many things right (other than Xinjiang, of course...) but I don't want to watch the fall of America like I watched the fall of the URSS.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
As President-elect Joe Biden's expected energy secretary, Granholm now faces a bigger task: making good on his campaign promise to help the United States compete with China on electric vehicles (EVs) as part of a $2 trillion plan to fight climate change.
Biden has said China was set to dramatically outpace the United States in EV production. But the United States, he said after the Nov. 3 election, could "own" the market with the right green policies. He has promised to build 550,000 EV charging stations and create over 1 million jobs by investing in clean energy research.
His transition team did not respond to a request for comment on how Granholm, who sources said on Tuesday would be nominated by Biden, would push EVs.
To do so, Biden's administration will need to coax a closely divided Congress to approve tax credits and billions of dollars more in stimulus funding. The Democratic president-elect takes office on Jan. 20.
Joe Britton, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, or ZETA, was optimistic that Granholm, who got green initiatives done in Rust-Belt Michigan, could make a difference.
"If we cultivate the electric vehicle sector, we can create hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs and Governor Granholm has been a key advocate in driving that economic development," he said.
ZETA, a group of 28 car and utility companies, including Tesla, PG&E and Southern Co, was launched last month to lobby for EV-friendly policies
The Energy Department under Granholm, who would need Senate confirmation, could play a critical role in deploying advanced vehicle, battery and supply chain manufacturing, Britton said.
That would be a change from Republican President Donald Trump. Under a policy of "energy dominance" to boost oil and natural gas output, his administration rejected new tax credits for EVs, proposed to kill existing ones, and made it easier to sell gasoline-powered vehicles.
While most of the Energy Department's budget goes to modernizing the country's stockpile of nuclear warheads and cleaning up nuclear sites, a Granholm pick suggests a focus on transport, a large source of greenhouse gas emissions.
TRANSFORMATION
Granholm, who was Michigan's governor from 2003 to 2011, worked with Biden on the 2009 bailout of automobile manufacturers General Motors and Chrysler, which included incentives for investments in car batteries.
The bailout was initiated by Republican President George W. Bush, but mostly overseen by President Barack Obama, a Democrat. Biden was Obama's vice president.
In addition, Granholm helped Michigan's major carmakers and other companies and universities get $1.3 billion in grants as part of the $787 billion stimulus act passed by Congress in 2009.
Granholm said shortly after her governorship ended that the U.S. grants brought 18 companies to Michigan working on lithium-ion batteries and projected those grants would create 63,000 jobs over time.
It was not all easy going.
One battery company, A123, declared bankruptcy in 2012, leading Republican Mitt Romney, then a presidential candidate, to say that Democrats were "gambling away billions of taxpayer dollars."
The speed bumps years ago were mostly due to the U.S. car industry not being ready for transformation, an expert said.
"This is always an issue with any kind of transformative change," said Kristin Dziczek, vice president, industry, labor & economics at the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan. "Hitting the timing just right is exceedingly rare."
CHINA'S 1.1 MILLION EV SALES
The United States has some catching up to do with China. Sales of EVs in China are expected to be about 1.1 million units this year. Numbers for 2020 U.S. sales were not yet available, but U.S. automakers sold just 326,000 EVs last year.
Besides federal funding, much work will have to be done on the nation's electricity transmission grid to ensure it can take the load of new cars charged with power.
"This is a systemic issue," said Dziczek. "It's going to require a lot of thought and planning around a number of dimensions, and she's got good policy chops," she said of Granholm.
The former governor will likely have a strong partner at the Transportation Department. For that agency, Biden has nominated Pete Buttigieg, whose climate plan when he was a candidate for president called for $6 billion in grants and loans for states and cities to partner with companies and unions to deploy millions of EVs.
Buttigieg has demonstrated a "commitment to deploying millions of electric vehicles and a robust charging network that will create thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs," Britton said.
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Every article has a paragraph like this, comparing America and China... and usually to America's detriment. Meanwhile, Joe Sixpack is listening to QAnon...
Electric vehicles are inevitable; the market is accepting them and they make good sense. I am also in favor of them. But we should evolve to them by predominantly following market forces. Government removing roadblocks to legit progress is good. Government interfering with the market is generally bad.
Toyota and Tesla have a huge head start.
Ford & GM have made the commitments
Fiat is investing in EV;s in CA
Globally Fiat will introduce 30 new hybrid or electric vehicles by 2022
Absolutely... but the market is already wildly skewed (screwed??).
Pump gasoline, if Big Oil didn't have all its tax breaks, would cost somewhere between 10 dollars if Big Oil doesn't get stuck with depollution costs, and 15 dollars if they do. Basically, the average American is subsidizing every gallon of gas guzzled by that big ol' pickup, to the tune of 70 to 90 percent.
Personally, I would not make the market even messier. I'd roll back Big Oil's subsidies, such that the pump price of gasoline rises 5 cents per gallon... per month... for the next ten years. A total hike of six dollars at the end of the ten years. With the hike spread out over time, people could adjust to the change however they wish.
(Pump prices in France when we left last month were around $6.20.)
The industry is investing very heavily in electric trucks from big rigs to panel and box trucks.
The pickup market is also looking like an area that the electric pickup could become popular.
I saw my first Amazon panel electric truck today in Ocala FL.
Specific body, or just a standard body on an electric chassis? Any sign of preparation for driverless?
This is the one.
The ones that Rivan is building for Amazon are due to hit the road in February 2021.
This makes more sense. Stopgap measure.
That's interesting because it means that Amazon saves, even with a "halfway" product.
If you lived in Michigan for Granholm's time as governor you would know the reason she resides in CA now. She had us in a single state recession 2 years before the national one hit. Her single business tax drove business out of Michigan; and made us uncompetitive with our surrounding neighbors.
If you want horrendous ideas she is definitely the right person for the job.
Apparently, she was re-elected...
She was the worst of the worst of Governors of MI in all of history. /s
She had a 29% approval rating when she left office.
"They blame her and the state’s business regulations and taxes, at least partly, for Michigan’s long list of dismal rankings among the states (No. 2 in unemployment; No. 5 in foreclosure starts; No. 51, including the District of Columbia, in attracting new residents)"
You're paying attention to popularity, now, Sean?
How can the average person afford one these modern marvels, what with millions of people still out of work?
Besides federal funding, much work will have to be done on the nation's electricity transmission grid to ensure it can take the load of new cars charged with power. Seriously??
There are two solutions:
- tax the rich, who have been capturing all of America's added value for forty years,
- run deficits.
“How can the average person afford one these modern marvels, what with millions of people still out of work?”
they can’t,,,,yet. Prices will come down but they aren’t there yet, it’ll be a while. Even when we had the best economy in my lifetime most still couldn’t afford an ev.
“Besides federal funding, much work will have to be done on the nation's electricity transmission grid to ensure it can take the load of new cars charged with power”
much, much work needs to be done and many problems will need to be solved. It can be done but it will take time. I know many idiots on the left want gas to become very expensive to usher in the ev era. They need to hold off till we are ready for ev’s. High gas prices will kill the economy and hurt the poor the most