Connecticut’s proposal to phase out new gas vehicles by 2035 is absurd.
Proposals to phase out gas vehicles to enable the phase-out of fossil fuels are naive or perpetrate a known lie. The possibility in this century is simply not possible.
Here or the facts: 15 billion tons of fossil fuels are consumed worldwide every year. There are 280 million cars in America. The total production of electric cars in 2021 was 475,000. Even if production increased to 1 million, it would take 280 years to replace all the cars.
Worldwide there are 1.4 billion motor vehicles of which 6 million (0.4%) are electric vehicles. It would take 250 years to convert motor vehicles worldwide to electric and the raw materials required would be 12,500,000 tonnes (yes tonnes!) of lithium and 54,000,000 tonnes of nickel. Even if it were available, the cost and environmental impact of extracting this raw material would be beyond comprehension.
Also, there are 25 million trucks worldwide with very little electric truck production.
There are over 40,000 commercial aircraft in service worldwide with no foreseeable replacement for jet engine technology.
There are 50,000 merchant ships worldwide of which only 160 are nuclear powered.
There are approximately 2.3 billion homes worldwide, of which 80% use gas or oil for heat.
Worldwide there are 35,000 power plants of which 72% are powered by coal, natural gas or oil.
Solar and wind energy currently account for less than 10 percent of global electricity production.
The construction of 3,000 new nuclear power plants of 500 MW capacity each would be necessary to replace the current fossil power plants.
A logical recognition of the facts concludes that the elimination of fossil fuels is simply not possible.
Anthony Vallillo
Woodbridge
