I could almost feel sorry for them; it sucks to try to run a business in a command economy (UPDATED)

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you will build your beautiful new battery factory there. but check in next week; that may change.

Poor carmakers: the political commissars running their countries issued a 10-year plan, a great leap forward: “you will produce only electric vehicles in 10 years, starting at a minimum of 20% today. Comply, or go out of business.”

What were automakers to do? They caved; research on new ICE engines was halted, thousands of workers were laid off, and billions of dollars were spent building new factories and (trying to) develop new manufacturing techniques and technology. They have now been forced into an unsustainable business model: produce cars consumers don’t want and won’t buy, and offer them nothing that are willing to purchase.

I don’t see how our present automakers survive this debacle (which has long been the dream of those who want to abolish private transportation). Even if they federal government backs off, eight states already have the same 2035 deadline, and those will remain. And if a carmaker wanted to retrench and resume building internal combustion engines, how will it attract the required capital to rebuild when investors know that the next shift of the wind will make the product illegal again? It’s the same dilemma faced by energy companies: No one will sink money into developing a mine today, when the process to get it up and running will take 15-20 years, and there can be no guarantee that the commissars will allow it to open when it’s finally completed. (Fortunately for the west, China has all sorts of mineral mines operating, and its leaders will gladly sell it to us no matter how our relationship is going.) Power plants, same thing.

No one likes uncertainty, especially business, yet we now have an economy that’s entirely dependent on the fickle whim of politicians. That’s not just a zero-growth plan, it’s one for deindustrialization.

Exactly as planned.

UPDATE

John Stossel: Destructive Environmentalists

…         Physicist Mark Mills wonders why anyone would try to open a mine in America today. "Why in the world would you put millions, maybe billions of dollars at risk, spending those decades to get a permit, knowing there's a very good chance they'll just cancel a permit? How in the world do you build mines in America knowing that that's the landscape you have?"

        Well, you don't.

        America now ranks second to last in the time it takes to develop a new mine -- roughly 29 years. Only Zambia is worse.

        "You start applying for permits," says Mills, "You're going to be waiting not months, not years, but decades!"

Read the whole thing