Gas Prices and Climate Change

It is ironic that right after COP26, the big climate change conference, the US media is obsessed with the high price of gasoline.  The main goal of COP26 was to reign in use of fossil fuels like gasoline.  One of the best ways to reduce its use is to raise its price, but instead of praising the price increase as a way to reduce its use, the press is criticizing the price increase as a component of inflation.  If America were serious about phasing out fossil fuels, it would raise the price of gasoline (and other fossil fuels) even higher. 

Meanwhile, the American stock market has gone bonkers over electric vehicles (EVs) like Tesla.  No one highlights the fact that most EVs run on electricity from the national power grid, which is a mix of energy sources, including coal.  A relatively small share of electricity comes from renewable sources like wind and solar.  Currently the energy mix is approximately 20% coal, 20% renewables, 20% nuclear, and 40% natural gas.  So, about 60% of the fuel in your Tesla comes from fossil sources.  Nuclear energy contributes about as much toward saving the climate as renewable sources, although most nuclear plants are more than 40 years old.  To date, they have done more to control global warming than all the windmills and solar panels ever made.