Intra-EU controversy over "new energy": Why does the Czech president oppose "green fanaticism"?

In June 2022, the European Parliament, by 339 votes in favour, 249 against and 24 abstentions, decided to ban the sale of fuel vehicles in the EU by 2035. The implementation of this bill is subject to the unanimous approval of the Governments of its member states.

Previously, European countries have successively announced plans to ban the sale of fuel vehicles: Norway will be in 2025, the Netherlands, Germany, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, the United Kingdom, etc. will be in 2030, Italy from 2035, France, Spain is scheduled to be in 2040... Completely stop manufacturing and selling fuel vehicles. Outside of Europe, Japan announced in 2021 that it would completely ban the sale of fuel vehicles by 2035.

But not without objections, Czech President Miloš Zeman criticized Europe's large-scale promotion of electric vehicles and measures to reduce fuel vehicles: electric vehicles will consume more resources and energy.

The concept of "environmental protection" of electric vehicles is, to a large extent, "visible environmental protection", deliberately ignoring "invisible environmental protection", that is, the gradient of emissions. Vehicles always consume energy, and electric vehicles emit very little during the driving process, essentially transferring "carbon emissions" to power plants, power transmission/substation, etc., similar to "not seeing and not being upset". The construction, maintenance, and renewal of charging piles and transmission/substation networks everywhere will cause a large number of pollution emissions in the manufacturing industry that produces these equipment, but these pollution and emissions will be transferred to the manufacturing belt of East Asia.

In India, Bangladesh and other extremely densely populated areas, the promotion of electric buses (limited to 20 people, but can squeeze more than 30 people), pulling a cable into the community can provide power to thousands of residents. Energy efficiency can indeed be significantly improved, and per capita carbon emissions can be significantly reduced.

However, in Europe and North America, which are sparsely populated and have a high quality of life, the construction of charging networks will consume huge resources and energy. Charging facilities need substations, transformers, cables, intelligent control systems and other comprehensive support, in Europe and North America, often to build tens of kilometers of transmission lines, but can only build charging piles for a few villas, only serve a few vehicles. In this type of model, the consumption of raw materials, energy, "carbon emissions" and so on per capita and car is higher than that of fuel vehicles, which is why President Zeman said that "electric vehicles will consume more resources and energy".

At the same time, electric vehicles will also produce environmental problems that have not been seen before: first of all, heavy metal pollution, and the biotoxicity of cobalt, manganese and nickel in lithium cobalt oxide materials is very large. Lithium iron phosphate is better, but the lithium salts of its electrolyte, organic solvents, and various additives also have certain hazards. The pollution caused by power batteries is much more serious than that caused by gasoline of the same volume and quality. A certain proportion of water vapor, carbon oxides, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, etc. produced after gasoline combustion will be decomposed. The heavy metal compounds produced by batteries are extremely difficult to decompose, and may penetrate into the land and water cycle, and the consequences are quite terrible.

The author once worked in a car company and asked the researchers: after the car battery is eliminated, how to deal with it? The researchers replied: It can be recycled for energy storage power plants. Ask again: What about after the energy storage power station is scrapped? How much can the recovery rate of battery residue be achieved? What about highly toxic substances that are not recyclable? A double doctor replied: This is not within our responsibilities, I am just a research and development company in the car company. This answer, this line of thought, is really thrilling. Whether electric vehicles are "future megatrends" can be discussed, but for now alone, many scientific and technological problems have not been solved, and too many initiatives are still expedient, but they are quite radical and even fanatical.

Fans of solar, wind, hydropower energy may say: the use of fossil energy to generate electricity is a gradient in emissions, and the electricity we generate, carbon emissions are very small, certainly much cleaner and more environmentally friendly. This is true, but the question is: at this stage, can solar, wind, hydropower, and others bear most of human energy needs? What should I do in areas where solar, wind, and hydropower are not abundant? Can the nature of solar and wind energy become a stable and reliable main source of energy?

President Zeman spoke of "green fanaticism" as the most important cause of Europe's current energy crisis. He argues that neighboring Germany will not only have to cancel thermal power plants, but also shut down three remaining nuclear power plants, but because energy demand has not decreased, this subjective reduction in energy supply has pushed up the price of energy and bulk raw materials, while the rise in the price of "carbon credits" has also contributed to high energy prices.

Zeman pointed out that the Czech Republic should not blindly follow the big countries, as a small country, the Czech Republic relies on exports for 80% of its GDP. The government's policy and foreign policy should focus on promoting foreign trade and attracting more foreign investment.

Dissenting not only the Czech Republic, Norway's neighbors Denmark, Finland and Sweden have said that Norway's plan to restrict electricity exports is a dangerous and selfish act at a time when Europe is responding to a serious energy crisis.

When a country's energy is restricted under the pretext of "environmentalism", nuclear energy and thermal power are forcibly eliminated, and it lacks "clean and environmentally friendly" energy such as solar energy, wind energy, hydropower, and natural gas, it has to import from such energy-rich areas. And in an emergency moment, or a time of disagreement, pulling the brake and curtailing the power has become the only means for others to control, influence and suppress you.

For example, the Czech Republic, a small country in Central Europe, is also a manufacturing power, and its vehicles, machinery and equipment, electronic products, chemical and pharmaceutical products, etc. are quite successful in international trade. Energy is the lifeblood of manufacturing, and without a stable and cheap electricity supply, the Czech economy and society will collapse.

In 2018, the total installed capacity of electricity generation in the Czech Republic was 22,277 MW. Among them, conventional thermal power accounts for 60%, nuclear power accounts for 34%, and "renewable energy" accounts for 6%. Due to its own coal mine resources, its power supply is sufficient, and even exported to the outside world, it is the second largest electricity exporter in Europe, mainly supplying Germany, Austria, Slovakia and so on.

The existing energy model in the Czech Republic is stable and reliable, and due to its small population and small manufacturing, although its energy structure is "not very environmentally friendly", the overall "emissions" are small. If it is forced to transition by EU policy, it will mean that the Czech Republic will be reduced from an economically developed energy exporter to an energy-deficient region.

The German-dominated EUROPEAN Union is forcing the Czech Republic to reduce coal power and switch to "green energy", forcing it to spend 4th place in the EU on the proportion of special funds used to deal with inflation. The Czech Republic is under enormous political pressure, and if the price of industrial electricity rises by 1 times, the country will go bankrupt completely.

Perhaps, when others talk about "green environmental protection" with a kind face and full of ideas, they may not really care for all mankind and have no selfish intentions in their hearts. At least, there is still a dispute within the EU over new energy sources.

Mei Yijun