Rantz asserts we're not ready for EVs
Analyzing the article
Fox News
Our Analysis: 3 Fallacies
1 It only takes a weekend trip to a wedding two hours outside of a big city to realize this country is nowhere near ready for the Democrats' clean energy revolution. It's too bad they're unwilling to accept reality.
...
A major piece of the Democrats' clean energy revolution is a mandate towards electric vehicles (EVs). At least 13 states, including Washington, California, New York, and Virginia, plus D.C., mandate new car sales to be EVs by 2035. 2 The goal is to convert everyone to electric -- by force.
But to date, 3 the country only has 168,426 charging stations, with a goal of 500,000 by 2025. A lot of good that will do. The International Council on Clean Transportation says the U.S. will require 2.4 million charging stations by 2030 (which includes at-home, public, and workplace) based on EV market trends.
...
Last week, Hertz rental cars made headlines for ditching its EV fleet for more gas-powered vehicles. I lived their reason, learning a harsh lesson about our weak EV infrastructure while driving to a wedding in Cle Elum, 90 minutes east of Seattle. I don't own a car, so I rented one from Hertz... When I arrived at the venue, my dashboard said the battery would only last 43 more miles. I needed double that to make it back to Seattle.
...
The car misled me about how far I'd get. After 30 minutes, I had 9.5 miles to the charger and a battery that could handle 17 more miles... I was forced to pull over, cruising to a stop in the middle of nowhere. The battery had died as I was pulling off the freeway. Moments later, the lights and heat went out. It was pitch black and about 30 degrees... When the Uber arrived, I abandoned the EV. It was now Hertz's problem. I got home, $108.91 later (plus a generous tip). This is your future in the Democrats' EV world.
...
We'd better start embracing staycations because road trips are out of the question. Forget long drives to see medical specialists. And you better not forget to plug in each night or you'll find yourself without a battery juice when driving home from work... Yet 2 Democrats continue to force EVs on us.
- Anecdotal reasoning • The author's personal experience with a single EV rental in a specific location is used to draw sweeping conclusions about the entire EV infrastructure nationwide. This ignores the vast differences in charging availability across different regions and relies on an unrepresentative sample.
- Straw man • The author claims that Democrats want to "force" everyone to convert to EVs based on mandates in some states, ignoring that these mandates are on percentages of new car sales (not usage), and that they have deadlines far in the future, after potential changes in technology or policy could drastically alter the landscape.
- Cherry-picking • The author cites specific negative statistics about EV charging stations and ignores positive data, such as the rapidly growing number of stations being installed nationwide.
- False dichotomy • Overall, the text presents an exclusive choice between EVs and gas-powered vehicles, ignoring the potential for alternative options or hybrid solutions.
References
- Jason Rantz (2024, Jan 23). I was stranded in an EV at midnight. Progressives don't want you to know about my nightmare.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/stranded-ev-midnight-progressives-want-know-nightmare
Disclaimer
Note that there being one or more apparent fallacies in the arguments presented in this article does not mean that every argument the arguer made was fallacious, nor does it mean there are not other arguments in existence for the same or similar position that are logically valid. Also note that checking for fallacies is not the same as verification of the premises the arguer starts from, such as facts that the arguer asserts or principles that the arguer assumes as the foundation for constructing arguments. For more about this, see our 'What is Fallacy Checking?'
NO AI TRAINING
Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
Comments