“Do we need a clean energy industry that depends on government handouts forever? Yes, if you ascribe to the climate disaster mantra…. Does anyone consider letting market forces drive technology development?”
An op-ed in Monday’s Houston Chronicle, “Houston is making a losing bet on fossil fuels,” greeted visitors to CERAWeek. Author Randall Morton attacked oil company CEOs and Houston business leaders for defending a “declining” industry. His opening sentence? “Leaders of the oil and gas industry are in Houston for CERAWeek, grappling with the inevitable decline of the industry.”
Morton then goes after the “economic development leaders at the Greater Houston Partnership [who] are doubling down on this declining industry.” He specifically identifies the GHP’s Energy Transition Initiative – hydrogen and carbon capture – as failed technologies.
Fair enough, but he misses a critical point. …
“This isn’t the Field of Dreams: ‘If you build it, he will come.’ … Automakers are wrestling with the reality of the EV market as politicians continue to believe in fairy tales about them.”
A recent headline on The Drive website read: “Ford Slashes 2023 Mustang Mach-E Price by up to $8,100 With 0% APR.” More interesting was the tagline under the headline. “Now’s a really great time to nab a solid, yet slow-selling EV.”
Even the advertising department at Ford Motor Company cannot hide the company’s problem with EVs – “slow-selling!” Customers do not want them to the degree politicians believe and have incentivized and mandated. As a report on EV battery costs stated, technology should lead policy rather than the other way around. We are hard-pressed to cite any example of a policy leading the technology. …
“Despite the optimists telling us how well EVs are selling and that the charging and cost issues will be quickly resolved, the industry struggles. The math doesn’t work, and consumers are concluding hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) better meet their driving needs. Auto executives are wondering whether their betting on the EV transition, even with mandates, is putting them on the road to bankruptcy.”
“The math doesn’t work,” Mark Fields, former Ford Motor CEO, told Joe Kernen of CNBC early last week. Until the industry solves charging and cost issues, EV sales will continue to underperform. The bottom line for Fields is that “the government [Biden administration] will have to back off” its policies mandating two-thirds of new vehicle sales being EVs by 2030. Absent such an adjustment, emissions will worsen, and the EV transition will lag. …