So give it a try

Free market gives batteries a chance

AS PRESIDENT Biden signs executive orders on climate change, some corporations are doing things the old-fashioned way—by making their own decisions and setting their own standards. One of those corporations is General Motors.

With each year that goes by with record wildfires and hurricanes, more and more folks seem to understand that the climate is changing, and we aren’t helping the situation. Changes need to be made, careful changes, because as we’ve learned from the pandemic, the economy is a fragile thing.

While Uncle Sam can make rules that urge the process along, GM has decided to set its own course to be carbon neutral:

“General Motors wants to end production of all diesel- and gasoline-powered cars, trucks and SUVs by 2035 and shift its entire new fleet to electric vehicles as part of a broader plan to become carbon neutral by 2040, the company said Thursday. The company plans to use 100 percent renewable energy to power its U.S. facilities by 2030 and global facilities by 2035—five years ahead of a previously announced goal.”

That’s ambitious. But it gives GM a few more years to come up with better batteries for said electric vehicles. That’s what most of the limitations for renewable energy boil down to right now: battery storage.

Want to generate electricity when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining? Fantastic. What happens to customers when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing? Hopefully they’ll have a giant battery to draw power from, a battery that stores excess electricity from wind turbines and solar panels (and probably designed by Elon Musk). So give it a go, GM.

You don’t have to sell most Americans on the fact that making all vehicles zero emission would help the environment. But GM does have to sell us on the fact that by 2035 it’ll have affordable and efficient electric vehicles. Which can go more than down the block without recharging.

We shall see. And we shall be interested in the results.