Religious zealots never let facts get in the way of what they believe. These zealots have a certain dogma which guides their life and they choose to follow it no matter what the cost. Most of the time this behavior only affects their own life. Sometimes when they attempt to force their beliefs on others it can lead to terrible consequences. We read in history books about various religious groups who attempted to force everyone to follow their rules.

Our own country was formed after citizens of Europe fled from religious dogmas they did not wish to follow. Throughout history we have had instances where people were imprisoned or put to death if they did not follow certain religious beliefs. Today, we still have this occuring in the Islamic world.

In America, the religious dogma that zealots are forcing on everyone is the worship of electric vehicles (EVs). The Manhattan Institute recently issued a report on EVs. The author, Mark Mills, delivers a blistering account of the absurdity of the unrealistic rules regarding fuel efficiency that the Democrats are forcing auto makers to follow. The end result of these rules from the environmental zealots will be more hardship for working Americans and increased pollution.

These environmental zealots have made unrealistic assumptions about the decreasing need for cars in cities. The Democrat bureaucrats have fantasized that the younger generation will not need automobiles because they will use mass transit in urban areas. Mills points out in his paper that Millennials exhibit “little difference in preferences for vehicle ownership” from Boomers. The Millennials actually drive more than Boomers and the Gen Z’ers have increased their share five-fold of automobiles purchased.

The reality is that fewer people desire to live in urban areas. It is not hard to understand why as we watch the way the Democrat mayors and prosecutors have allowed crime to run rampant in urban areas. Who would prefer to ride mass transit when they are plagued by lawless behavior from criminals that know they will not be prosecuted.

In order to meet the ridiculous emission standards that have been promulgated by the Obama and Biden administrations, Mills states “consumers will need to adopt electric vehicles 10 times greater and faster than the introduction of any new model of car in history.”

People prefer large cars and if they were to switch to EVs, much greater mining will be required to meet the needs of the EV industry. The essential minerals of the EV industry, copper and nickel, are not efficient to mine. 20,000 pounds of rock must be dug up to refine 20-40 pounds of nickel and copper.

Today, the global mining industry accounts for 40% of all industrial energy use. Can you imagine how much rock must be dug up if we start to increase EV production? Imagine attempting to mine copper and nickel in New York or California. Governor Newsome would never allow this to occur. Hypocritically, he is happy to force this mining to be drastically increased elsewhere in order to meet the crazy requirements he has passed to increase EV production.

Lithium mine in Chile. Electric vehicles are driving demand For lithium beyond the capacity of curret mining operations.

These environmental zealots are forcing more intensive mining to take place in order to meet their fuel efficiency requirements. The dirty little secret that these zealots will not talk about is how much more coal will need to be burned in order to produce energy to help dig out the nickel and copper that is needed for the EVs.

The auto executives in Detroit know that there is no way to meet the fuel efficiency requirements of the environmental zealots. They are forced to pretend to meet the fuel efficiency requirements by saying they will produce more EVs that consumers do not want. Most people that purchase EVs also have gas powered cars. They are not willing to put their life at risk by having a car that cannot get them somewhere in an emergency.

The sad result of these ridiculous rules is that all automobiles will be much more expensive to purchase. The poor people will be the ones who suffer much more by being forced to buy automobiles that are more expensive because the environmental zealots will not accept reality. But don’t you worry, John Kerry and Leonardo DeCaprio will continue to fly around the world in their gas guzzling private jets while they require you to pay more for your automobiles.