The fires that swept through the Los Angeles area pose a massive challenge for city officials and residents, not just from the sheer scale of the initial damage, but from the unique challenges presented by the cleanup.
Among the most difficult challenges will be handling the damaged lithium ion batteries found in electric vehicles left on properties during the evacuation.
EV Magazine noted that California leads the United States with respect to electric vehicle adoption, with just around 40% of electric cars in the country on its roads, especially because of green policies pushed by the state government.
According to one Wednesday report from KNBC-TV, the fires may have therefore created one of the largest cleanups of lithium ion batteries ever.
Steve Calanog, the incident commander for the Environmental Protection Agency handling the Palisades and Eaton fire cleanups, said in comments to KNBC-TV that the project will be “from our estimation, probably the largest lithium-ion battery pickup, cleanup, that’s ever happened in the history of the world.”
There were countless plug-in hybrid cars and electric vehicles in the area destroyed by the Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires.
The batteries can explode when they face damage or extreme heat.
Even worse, residual heat can cause an explosion days, weeks, or months after the initial disruption.
The cars may show no visible sign of damage, presenting danger to residents and contractors returning to destroyed properties to start the cleanups.
EV Magazine said that added dangers include the leakage of hazardous materials into the environment and the difficulty of identifying partially combusted batteries among other debris.
There also exists limited recycling infrastructure to handle the electric vehicle batteries, especially after a massive influx of needed capacity, and the fact that specific protocols are needed to even handle and dispose of the batteries in the first place.
In short, a novel technology is producing a novel challenge to Californians, marking one of just many drawbacks of the electric vehicles which the state government heavily incentivized.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has, after all, mandated that all new passenger vehicles sold in the state must be zero-emission by 2035.
That is a short decade away.
But state policymakers show no sign of backing away from that aggressive and top-down mandate.
They are instead continuing to rush headfirst into that course, all in the name of fighting climate change and saving the environment.
The environment of Los Angeles, and more importantly, its people, have nevertheless taken a massive hit from such policies, for which they will continue to struggle for the foreseeable future.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
The post California’s Obsession with EVs Is Turning Neighborhoods Into Minefields appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.