Energy Secretary Says Solution for Rising Gas Prices Is ‘To Electrify Transportation’
Consumers are buying electric vehicles in dramatically rising numbers
For Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, moving the nation towards higher and higher levels of adoption of electric vehicles isn't just about trying to mitigate the worst of global climate change.
It's also about saving money.
Much of the focus on the Biden administration's effort to replace traditional gasoline-powered vehicles on US highways with electric vehicles (EVs) has been on the need to cut, quickly, the amount of the greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere which is causing climate change.
Those efforts include projects in the bipartisan infrastructure legislation Biden signed into law last year, to build-out and increase the number of EV charging stations available to EV drivers.
And adoption of EVs is ramping up quickly.
Electric car sales in the United States increased from a mere 0.2 percent of total car sales in 2011 to 4.6 percent in 2021, according to figures from the federal government.
And that growth only is accelerating.
Some estimates say 40 percent of total passenger car sales by 2030, and more optimistic projections foresee EV sales surpassing 50 percent by 2030.
However, as Americans have seen in recent years, the price of oil has fluctuated. And the use of EVs can shield consumers from nasty price spikes at the fuel pump, according to Granholm, a former Democratic governor of Michigan.
“Oil is traded on a global market, right? I think what we have seen with this war in Ukraine and the volatility of the oil markets, the decision by OPEC to not produce as much, that causes prices to go up, right? That means the global market is extremely volatile,” she said, referring to the international cartel which governs production levels — and pricing — for many of the world's largest oil producers. “So what’s better for us? The better choice is to move to electrify transportation because it is so much cheaper for you to operate an electric vehicle than it is to fill up your tank with gasoline. So the bottom line is moving to clean is moving to energy security.”
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