Today, in this second issue of my civic issues blog, I am going to touch on Electric Vehicles and their environmental challenges.

Electric Vehicles are much more efficient and cleaner than their gas counterparts. In an Electric Vehicle, over 77% of the electrical energy from the grid is converted to moving the car forward while gas vehicles only convert about 12-30% of the energy stored in gasoline, according to fueleconomy.gov. On top of that, gas vehicles emit green house gases into the atmosphere as they drive while electric vehicles have no exhaust. Because of this, the International Energy Agency estimates battery powered vehicles will account for up to 12% of the global automotive fleet. That’s exciting and something we should strive for, right?

That answer is certainly yes but gets complicated when it comes to where the power from the grid comes from and the ability to recycle the massive, toxic batteries that power them.

When it comes to electricity generation in the United States, about 60% comes from fossil fuels, 20% comes from Nuclear, and only the last 20% comes from renewable resources according to eia.gov. That means when you are driving an electric vehicle in America, there is only a 20% chance that your commute to work it truly clean. The dirty ways to get power are just displaced miles away from you.

On top of simply accounting for where the power comes from, we should consider where the resources come from for these batteries. Batteries contain minerals such as cobalt and lithium that are mostly extracted and processed overseas. There it costs local communities greatly in labor, and unclean energy generation. The new demand for batteries in electric vehicles will reduce greenhouse emissions in developed countries but will be sacrificed in the places where the materials are mined (Wired). Once again, the nonrenewable energy generation is simply displaced.

I am not saying we should stop pushing electric vehicles. If you read my passion blog, I excitedly write about them all the time, but I think it is important that we completely understand how clean they are before you fully commit to them.

That leads us to understanding what to do with electric vehicles’ batteries. In the tiny, Chevrolet Bolt, the battery to power the vehicle is 960lbs and runs the full wheelbase of the car. Recycling any lithium-ion battery is not easy but recycling one at that scale is extremely difficult.

Credit: Wired

Lithium-ion batteries are toxic and can cause destructive fires that spread quickly. The EPA says at least 65 fires at municipal waste facilities were caused by batteries. Rather than throwing out these batteries, it makes sense to recycle them, but that is where it further gets complicated.

Today, more than 95% of the small car batteries in gas vehicles are recycled because consumers can claim deposits when they return the batteries, and they are simple to dismantle. Electric Vehicle batteries are more complicated and harder to recycle. Partly due to their size, partly because they are dangerous. The voltages in these batteries are lethal and very difficult to disassemble without the right tools.

In addition, the process of recycling these batteries is very expensive. Most of this cost is simply in transportation. About 40% of the cost of recycling comes in transportation of these massive batteries. When it comes down to it, it costs more to recycle them than to just mine more of the same resources. Playing margins like that make sense for businesses, but not for the environment.

How exactly should we tackle this problem? Should we have more government involvement in this process? Should the government even be involved? How should we best invest in renewable resources?

That is where is problem gets very sticky. Around election times, these issues seem to be highlighted as one political party tries to fix this issue with more government while the opponent uses false data to say we do not need to fix this issue and that we should limit government involvement.

This issue should not only be brought up to the public every 4 years. It should be an effort everyday to solve our energy crisis before it is too late.

Let me know down below if you support government regulation of the battery recycling process, if you support government investment of renewables in general, or if we should just let private businesses tackle these issues.

Thanks for reading!