On Why Electric Cars Might Not be the Panacea that Bureaucrats and Well-Connected Crony Capitalists Constantly Make Them Out to Be

1) The fact that a large percentage of the electricity will probably come from coal-fired power-plants (one of the dirtiest forms of energy).............2) Nearly half of the world's known lithium reserves resides in one country, Bolivia. Their President has said that, while he would be willing to sell the lithium, the Bolivian government in fact would a) continue to legally "own" it, b) seize 60% of the earnings before the lithium has even left the country, and c) insist that the batteries and cars be made only in Bolivia.............3) The fact that they'd be a major inconvenience for people who don't a garage.............4) The fact that they would drive up the price of electricity and drive down the cost of gasoline and thereby negatively impact upon the poor and elderly.............5) The fact that they will drive up the price of lithium and therefore the price of other products; lap-top computers, cell-phones, glass, ceramics, and concrete.............6) The potential damage caused by the mining of lithium to an environmentally sensitive area; Bolivia's Unuyi salt-flats.............7) The fact that the American people apparently don't care for them.............8) Two words; crony capitalism (the constant push by big businesses for more and more subsidies)...........................................................................................P.S. This, of course, isn't to say that electric cars don't have a potential future. Maybe they do. But the fact that the government is continuing to play the role of kingmaker here, without as much as even a nod to the unintended consequences of their actions, is, at the very least, troubling. I mean, seriously here, how many more things do they have to get wrong?