Essay by Eric Worrall
“… after waiting for a long time to … get my electric vehicle, I got it and drove it from Michigan to here this last weekend and went by every single gas station, and it didn’t matter how high it was …”
Let them buy Teslas: Electric car owner Stabenow says gas prices don’t matter
by Breanne Deppisch, Energy and Environment Reporter
June 07, 2022 05:58 PMSen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) said it “doesn’t matter” how high gas prices go because she drives an electric vehicle, sparking backlash as gas prices in the United States climb to record highs with no short-term relief in sight.
Stabenow’s remarks came during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday to discuss Biden’s budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
When the subject turned to record-high fuel costs in the U.S., Stabenow chimed in: “I do have to say, just on the issue of gas prices, after waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country to finally get my electric vehicle, I got it and drove it from Michigan to here this last weekend and went by every single gas station, and it didn’t matter how high it was,” the Michigan Democrat said.
Stabenow added she is “looking forward to the opportunity for us to move to vehicles that aren’t going to be dependent on the whims of the oil companies and the international markets” and stressed the role that supply chain problems have had in hampering EV production and driving up costs.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy-environment/let-them-buy-teslas-electric-car-owner-stabenow-says-gas-prices-dont-matter
Video of Senator Stabenow’s comments;
As Rep. Mike Kelly pointed out, the average price of an electric vehicle is higher than the median income of his constituents. Checking census.gov, the median annual income of Michigan residents is $59,234, just short of the $60,000 they would need to buy an EV.
So if we assume a service life of 10 years, if Michigan residents earning median income put aside around 10% of their money before taxes, they can afford to own an average EV.
Oops, I forgot interest rates, which are on an upward trajectory thanks to Bidenflation – so I guess if they don’t have a spare $60,000, and have to finance their EV, maybe we’re looking at more like 20-30% of their pre-tax median MI income.
I mean, its not like people have to eat or heat their homes in Michigan, right? /sarc
Or perhaps Michigan residents will just have to be patient, and endure skyrocketing gasoline prices until everyone can afford an EV, like their Democrat senator suggested.
This is the same person that said she could feel climate change in her b*tt due to turbulence on an airplane ride.
She’s not right in either end.
DAMN!!!!
She has her union bosses too….
Stabenow bill to boost EV tax credits to $12,500 passes Senate panel (detroitnews.com)
i live in michigan. and i hate my senators. the word corruption doesn’t come close to describing stabmenow, or peters for that matter. we fight an uphill battle here in mi. 1. many voters are leftist and vote accordingly. 2. vote fraud/corruption is deeply entrenched in the bureaucracy. republicans hold the majority in our legislature. yet most go right along with this wind/solar scam. our grid here is severely compromised.
We will have brown/black outs starting this summer. A nuclear plant shut down in May so a stabilizing grid force is fine.
Republicans have done nothing to repeal Granholm’s Renewable energy laws. We are screwed.
just curious mkelly, are you a consumers energy customer?
I live in UP. Don’t have Consumers. Now that does not mean my local electric cooperative does buy from them.
MI is a ‘swing state’, meaning it is nominally Red, but contains one or more Blue political machine jurisdictions that can manufacture as many votes as my be required to swing state-wide elections in favor of Blue candidates. Too bad!
Are you happy with your Governor?
Whims of Democrat government – FIFY
Smile Debbie, until your electric car batteries spontaneously catch fire. Note Debbie, that the smoke from lithium battery fires is very neuro-toxic. A cruel way to turn first responders, and neighbours into Democrats.
I see what you did there. All the dead vote Demonrat.
I’m guessing this senator doesn’t eat or have any furniture in her home(s). Obviously she wears clothes, and probably pays a pretty penny to maintain that ridiculously dated hairdo (reminds me of the mom in “That 70’s Show”!). Clearly she can’t comprehend that just about everything she eats, wears, has in her home(s) and is used for the hairdo is shipped in to the local store (or beauty salon) by a diesel powered truck! All the Tesla and other EVs do is move people from point A to point B. They can manage a few people and a load of groceries or some luggage and that’s about it. But there’s no way they can haul a huge load of freight – not from state to state and not (on a freighter) across the Atlantic or Pacific. And it will be a long, long time (if ever) before huge farm machinery is electrified. How stupid!
Stabenow just provided proof of how utterly clueless she is.
Where the hell does she think the damn electricity comes from?
The wall socket, Obviously.
So…The Stabber buys a Cevy Volt (range: 247 before needing a 13hr recharge) to travel about 600 miles to Washington DC…. so it had to have taken her at least three days of driving, two nights in a hotel… at about $175 a night…
I coulda drove the distance in a day. Let’s maths shall we?
600 miles at 20mpg/30mpg is 20 to 30 gal…. at $6 a gallon…. $120 to $180 for gas… compared to $350 to $525 in lodging…. hmmmm…. costs Deb $175 to $405 more to operate an EV rather than a gas car (my focus gets 36/40 mpg so it woulda cost me $100 for the trip; a 2021 Ford Explorer gets about 25 hwy, so $150 there ). And remember… she’s gotta do it again (although I’m thinking it’ll stay oin DC and she’ll fly back and forth now she has transpo there).
No wonder dems are so lousy at economic policies, or understanding about how regular people live.
It’s not like she’s spending her own money,
You’re assuming the cost of the electricity to recharge was somehow without cost, too.
Can she feel the ridicule when she’s driving?
Maybe they could include the math and consequences of overspending on EVs, insurance, chargers, and battery replacement in the Michigan drive to educate young people. Remember to use the C-word for cost and the cost of extended unemployment in the auto-related services sector.
Michigan will be 14th state to mandate personal finance education (cnbc.com)
She looked like a female version of the Joker when she was on TV last night.
Photoshop has worked wonders on that photo – her face really looks like some gnarled old tree trunk.
Probably has a Honda Generator in the Trunk.
Remember to put your very expensive EV purchase on your student loan and ask if you could do the same with the expensive insurance.
Anyone have any idea what she means by this?
After waiting for a long time to have enough chips in this country
Well,
presumably assembled in the Lower 48, with chips from Taiwan.
Auto
There has been a shortage of computer chips in this country for awhile now.
I thought she was referring to how ridiculously expensive those unquenchable firestarters are. She waited a long time to get enough chips at the casino.
Meanwhile at the station near my house diesel is $5.29 / gal, which is still considerably less than the national average. Now if I took Senator Stabenow’s attitude, I would say I don’t care because my car doesn’t burn diesel. But all the long-haul trucks do, along with all the heavy rail locomotives. The vast majority of goods moved around this country are carried by transport which burns diesel fuel. And most long haul transport that doesn’t burns jet fuel, which is also rising sharply in price.
And goods coming from overseas arrive in container ships which burn Very Low Sulfur Fuel Oil (VLSFO).
The spot price for VLSFO in Signapore was $734 / metric ton in mid-February. It reached its 2022 peak of $1,155 May 31st, and remains at $1,128 today.
When Biden took office in 2021 the price was $450 / metric ton. One year later, over a month before the Ukraine invasion, it had risen to $687. On Feb 24, the start of the invasion it was $769.
There is no question the Ukraine war has pushed oil prices higher, but VLSFO prices rose 71% between the day Biden took office and the start of the invasion; it’s risen an additional 47% since. Biden took office pledging to shut down domestic oil and gas production; the steps he’s taken toward that goal have had the inevitable effect of raising prices.
Increased fuel prices will have an effect on almost everything else we buy, even the electricity used to charge Senator Stabenow’s EV. We’re even going to have to pay more for the tar and feathers needed to run these morons out of town in November.
#FJB
When oil prices go up, natural gas and coal prices usually follow.
This means that the price of electricity is going to head up as well.
Like most liberals Stabenow has no idea how the real world works.
Does she even know that we are giving large federal tax credits to foreign made EVs?
In a crisis, you get to see clearly who you voted for. You can be sure that 99% of of Stabenow’s constituents are driving ICE cars, . Even allowing for the general knowledge that Democrats have an entitlement philosophy, I’m sure voters are pissed off with her take on the problem. What makes one so sure that she really gives a damn about any problems her constituents have? Sheesh, voters, you know this hack just gave herself an IQ test.
Oh I don’t know about that. Most dead voters are pretty much homebodies who don’t own a car, ICE or EV. The welfare queens don’t drive either, so that pretty much covers the bulk of her voters.
Fuel prices affect the cost on all products. If diesel prices rise 5 cents my annual fuel cost rises by 1 million dollars on my fleet. I am in business to make money, so prices on our products have to be raised to cover expenses. The consumer always pays for Washington’s arrogance.
Couldn’t help but notice
If she charged her vehicle in southeast Michigan she more than likely used electricity from DTE.(Detroit Edison). DTE generates 58% of their electricity from coal and another 9% from natural gas. Link. 23% comes from nukes. So even though she drives an electric vehicle she is still using fossil fuels. And coal produces more CO2 per million BTUs than any other fossil fuel.
Nationwide about 60% of electricity comes from fossil fuels. Link
“Let the peasants eat electrons…”
She should at least be calling on the state and federal governments to charge road and excise taxes on electricity used to charge EVs, so that an EV driver pays as much tax per ton-mile as a gas-car driver. How long can governments afford to let tax revenue leak out of that subsidy hole?
“Let them eat cake.” – Senator Stabenow
I am just glad these morons don’t know when to shut up.