To the Editor:

In response to “The energy transition - the weight of it all”

The writer must have a financial interest in EV stock or sales. He continues to promote them in his frequent letters like a running commercial. Again he totes all the apparent advantages of EVs, while deliberately neglecting to disclose the environmental and moral downsides to EV technology.

To whit:
EV’s batteries may be reliable in warm weather, but not so much in NY and other states where winter lasts a third or more of the year, with temperatures often falling below zero.

According to Triple A, EV batteries lose as much as 50-60% power in cold weather. Charging stations in Chicago last winter were overwhelmed with EV owners waiting in long lines for an available stall. Some didn’t make it and had to be towed.

I suspect many of Chicago's EVs owners experienced buyer remorse. Time is money. Who wants to wait for their EV to slowly recharge its frozen batteries in the dead of winter, when a fossil fuel car can gas up, and go?
There is a hidden cost to Mr. Shipley’s assumed clean energy transition to replace our present fossil-fueled cars with EV’s.

Most EV’s batteries are manufactured in China, almost four times more than those in the US. China is nobody’s friend. They threaten to invade Taiwan. If that happens, say goodbye to the supply chain of EV batteries. They do not have the worker safeguards and benefits like we do. Remember when Apple Ipads were once built in China, using cheap labor? It’s the same practice with EV batteries.

The Chinese government doesn’t care what environmental damage occurs to extract the minerals to build the batteries. Only what profit they can make, which is pretty ironic for a communist nation. In the African Congo, 25,000 children are estimated to be employed or enslaved to mine the cobalt needed for the EV batteries, making EV batteries the new “Blood Diamond” of today.


This Green energy transition Mr. Shipley promotes is based on a morally tainted technology exploiting human labor.

EV batteries also remain equally problematic to our environment by means of extracting the minerals to produce them and then consigning toxic dead EV batteries back into our landfills.

Before becoming enamored by the EV hype, do the research first to make an educated purchase, so you won’t be left out in the cold.


Ron Shirtz

Rensselaer Falls