20 Kentucky Trucker From Amnesty International: “Children told Amnesty International they worked for up to 12 hours a day in the mines, carrying heavy loads to earn between one and two dollars a day ... Paul, a 14-year-old orphan, started mining at the age of 12. He told researchers that prolonged time underground made him constantly ill: “I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning … I had to relieve myself down in the tunnels … My foster mother planned to send me to school, but my foster father was against it, he exploited me by making me work in the mine.” Sourcing these minerals in the United States would be considerably more expensive. And if the environmental lobby is unwilling to grant new mining permits in our country, is it willing to subsidize the expansion of child labor industry across Congo and other less developed countries to advance its “Net Zero” carbon agenda? A sheer lack of charging infrastructure presents another major hurdle. The trucking industry already faces a chronic and severe shortage of commercial truck parking nationwide, which strains the supply chain and jeopardizes highway safety. Electrifying the nation’s truck fleet would require more chargers than there are parking spaces currently. Bear in mind that the truck charging needs at a single rural rest area would require enough daily electricity to power more than 5,000 homes. While tractor-trailers account for only one percent of vehicles on our nation’s roads, our freight truck fleet would consume 35% of the additional electricity needed to convert the U.S. vehicle fleet to BEVs. Lithium-ion batteries also dramatically increase the weight of trucks, meaning less freight and revenue per truck, putting even more trucks on the road. Electric trucks are also significantly more expensive; a typical new Class 8 diesel tractor costs around $135,000 compared to a Class 8 BEV that prices around $400,000 on the low end. Considering 96% of U.S. trucking companies are small businesses that own 10 trucks or fewer, these prohibitive cost increases would decimate countless trucking fleets across the country — sending shipping rates soaring to astronomical highs, and triggering a supply chain apocalypse that would make the crisis of these last couple years seem like a fond memory. This inflationary hellscape would raise poverty rates across our country and push life’s basic essentials out of reach for many. We must be clear-eyed about these realities as our nation works toward a viable climate strategy. If we let innovation drive this process, we can navigate the myriad of obstacles that must be overcome. But if we allow the government to dictate premature solutions without the right conditions and necessary support, we’ll only delay the arrival of our shared end goal. The trucking industry is doing its part in this effort, and we seek more partners in government who are willing to lead with facts, not fairytales. To learn more about cobalt mining in the Congo, scan the QR code to watch the video:
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