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We’d been intending to throw several brief nice-times stories about the economy and climate at you the last few days, but then Henry Kissinger died and Ammon Bundy went walkabout and Fox News hosted the Goofus vs. Gallant Debate, so instead we will just cram all the nice into this little roundup and say, with Kurt Vonnegut’s uncle, Well if this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.
In a regularly scheduled update, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Assessment revised its estimate of third quarter economic growth upward, from the already unexpectedly good 4.9 percent reported in October, to 5.2 percent instead. The final, “wait it’s really X percent” measure for the third quarter will be released in late December, and then in January the glorious cycle will begin anew with the initial estimate of fourth-quarter 2023 growth. Our forecast: Economists will find troubling undercurrents in any good news, cause for worry in any so-so statistics, and gloating angst in the slightest reduction from Q3.
Does this report mean everyone is rolling around in money? Hell, this is America, not some crazy socialist paradise like Canada.
The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported this week that combined sales of new battery-electric vehicles (BEVs), hybrids, and plug-in hybrids reached a record-setting 17.7 percent of all light-duty vehicle sales in the third quarter. For the year so far, that puts sales of those three types at 16 percent of all vehicles, compared to 12.5 percent in 2022 and just nine percent in 2021. Here, have a chart, which shows the corresponding dip in sales of new internal-combustion cars and light trucks:
We oughta start a betting pool on when those two lines will cross, and more than 50 percent of vehicles sold will be EVs or hybrids. I’ll put my marker on 2027, but it’d be neat if it came sooner. As EV charging infrastructure ramps up in the next few years, expect the portion of hybrids and plug-in hybrids to start declining, too.
When Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm posted about the report on Xitter Tuesday, all the MAGA Chuds with blue checkmarks told her she had to be lying, because Fox News says EVs are unworkable and nobody wants them, you liar. We’ll assume they also consider “confirmation bias” a dirty liberal lie.
On top of that, the EIA reports that, as you’d expect with any new technology, luxury battery-electric vehicles remain the biggest market segment, but that EV prices overall went down during the third quarter, dropping by five percent to an average of “$50,283, bringing the price 24% lower than at the price peak in the second quarter of 2022.”
On average, BEV prices are within about $3,000 of comparable internal-combustion models, which means that models that qualify for the full $7,5000 tax credit for EVs are actually cheaper, even before you start saving money on never gassing up again.
But also, keep in mind that the most expensive EVs and the richest buyers don’t even qualify for the tax credits, so no, it’s not a subsidy for the rich.
A new report from the Treasury Department finds that the Inflation Reduction Act is “driving clean energy investment to communities that have been underserved and at the forefront of fossil fuel production” — exactly as it was designed to do.
A few takeaway stats, handily compiled on Xitter by Heather Boushey, a member of President Biden’s Council of Economic Advisers: in the year and some months since the IRA passed,
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81% of announced clean investments have been for projects in counties with below-average weekly wages
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86% of clean investments are in counties with below-average college graduation rates
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70% of clean investments are in counties where a smaller share of the population is employed
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78% of clean investments are in counties with below-average median household incomes
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The share of clean investments going to low-income counties rose from 68% to 78%
The energy transition is happening, kids. And it’s going to be good for almost all of us not named ExxonMobil.
[BEA / EIA / Treasury Department / Image generated by DreamStudio AI]
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