Robinson Meyer writes:

There is a curious cognitive dissonance in how a lot of us think about the last decade’s climate policies and this decade’s economic problems.

During the final years of the 2010s, the Trump administration proudly tore up dozens of policies meant to lower American greenhouse gas emissions and build a competitive domestic clean energy industry. It prioritized oil, coal and natural gas businesses over wind, solar and batteries, and as president, Donald Trump often seemed to revel in picking policies that would increase emissions by design.

These choices came with costs: American automakers failed to make their cars more efficient, and within a few years, they had fallen behind their international competition, especially South Korean and Chinese automakers.

Today, the United States finds itself badly lagging behind China not just in hybrid and electric vehicles but also in many other crucial industries: solar, wind and battery production, as well as the refining of some minerals. China now makes more than half of the world’s electric vehicles, and BYD, the Chinese automaker, is expanding so quickly that it has plans to open factories abroad in Europe, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and South America.

Those were the costs of just one Trump term. If Mr. Trump returns to Washington, he has promised to once again pull us out of the Paris climate agreement, which the United States had rejoined under the Biden administration. He again wants to kill the country’s clean car standards. And he’s threatened to cut off the generous federal subsidies for selling and building electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act, President Biden’s signature climate policy. Although he’s recently softened some of his hate for electric vehicles — “you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly,” he said in Georgia last month, referring to Tesla’s chief executive, Elon Musk — he still believes only a “very small slice” of cars should run on electricity.

Mr. Trump’s policies would devastate America’s growing electric vehicle industry. [Continue reading…]