Everything has a cost
No such thing as a free lunch
Whenever I teach environmental economics, I ask my students a thought-provoking question on the first day: “If you live in Connecticut, the most environmentally friendly car would be an electric vehicle (EV) like a Tesla. If you live in West Virginia, however, the most environmentally friendly car would be a hybrid like a Toyota Prius. Why is that?”
I’m usually meant by silence. Students have been told their entire lives that EVs are environmentally friendly. That they have zero emissions. Therefore they must be better than gasoline-powered cars. Moreover, why would the state someone lives in matter? (This is where years of teaching experience pays off. After asking a difficult question, the best thing to do is to remain silent. Especially in today’s world, it feels awkward, but it’s necessary to give people time to ponder a difficult question).
A brave student or two will take a stab.
“Is it because West Virginia doesn’t have the charging infrastructure in place?” “Good guess, but that wouldn’t affect the environmental aspect of an electric car vs. a gas car.”
“Is it because West Virginia is hilly and/or cold, and that affects gas mileage?” “Also a good guess, but no.”
At this point, someone generally figures it out.
“Does it have to do with coal?”
Aha. West Virginia is a misunderstood place (read my writeup about West Virginia here.) That said, one thing is accurate: they love coal. It mines the second-most coal of any state, only behind Wyoming. Wyoming, the state that has somehow flown under the radar despite producing 41 percent of all US coal, far more than West Virginia. Regardless, West Virginia is coal country. Not only do they dig it out of the ground, they burn it. In a time when most states are transitioning away from coal and toward natural gas or renewables, West Virginia has continued its long embrace of coal. Today, it’s the only state that still draws 90 percent of its electricity from what used to be called “black gold”.
Burning petroleum in internal combustion engines and emitting the residue from tailpipes is bad for the environment. But burning coal is terrible. The carbon footprint of coal dwarfs every other widely used energy source. Tesla owners in West Virginia, not that there are many, aren’t doing their state any favors. Because of course while zero emissions come from an EV itself, EVs still generate emissions. It just isn’t directly from the car. Instead, emissions are generated from the local power plant every time an EV is charged. In a state like Connecticut, that means an EV is effectively powered by either natural gas or nuclear energy. In a state like West Virginia, however, EVs are going to be powered by coal. So if you live in Morgantown and want to be environmentally friendly, buy a Prius.
This is a great way of illustrating the bigger point: everything has a cost. Or, as economists like to say, “There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch”. You can’t get something for free. It’s easy to think that EVs are going to save mankind and that by driving one you’re making the world a better place. Unfortunately, it isn’t true. Any kind of transportation is going to generate emissions. If it’s a gas-powered car, it’s from the tailpipe. If it’s an EV, it’s from the power plant. Even a bicycle generates emissions - the energy that the human powering it comes from somewhere. That isn’t to say riding a bike is equivalent to driving a pickup truck. It isn’t. The former is far more environmentally friendly than the latter. There is, however, a cost either way.
This applies to all energy generation. Coal is by far the worst, even far worse than natural gas, but all forms of energy have a cost. Wind energy is wonderful, but the core needed for the wind turbine blades requires a lot of balsa wood. So much balsa wood, in fact, that it’s causing deforestation and causing issues to delicate ecosystems in Ecuador. Solar energy is also much better than energy from fossil fuels, but making those solar panels requires a lot of dirty mining.
Even hydropower has costs. The Hoover Dam has been great for the economic development of the West. It provides electricity to over a million people. It has also completely destroyed the Grand Canyon ecosystem. Tourists may at the Grand Canyon and imagine that it is unspoiled and perfectly preserved. The reality is far different. Because of both the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, the Grand Canyon has been transformed. By blocking the flow of the Colorado River the entire ecosystem is different. Water flowing through the canyon is much colder than it used to be because it’s released from the bottom of Lake Powell rather than from a natural river. Instead of annual flooding and dry periods, the river is kept more or less consistent year-round. These changes have irrevocably altered the plants and wildlife.
That isn’t to say the costs aren’t worth it. I think the Hoover Dam was a great idea. It has provided electricity in a far more environmentally friendly manner than a traditional power plant. It’s just worth remembering that everything has a cost, or as Fred Brooks said, “You can only get something for nothing if you have previously gotten nothing for something.”