Ford to Layoff 8,000 Works for Electric Vehicle Production | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Brittany Raymer.

    Ford Motor Company is reportedly planning on laying off 8,000 employees as part of its efforts to switch over and focus on electric vehicle production. The decision shows that despite what climate activists are saying, going green does not produce jobs.

    First reported by Bloomberg, there are talks within one of America's largest car manufacturers to make dramatic cuts in order to align with the progressive push for green energy vehicles and to save costs. One of the departments apparently on the chopping block is the Blue unit, which is responsible for producing the internal combustion engine cars, i.e. the cars that the vast majority of Americans own, and some salaried positions as well.

    If the company makes this move, it will cut about $3 billion in costs and allow the company to shift its focus to electric vehicles.

    Though the job cuts are not official and subject to change, the layoffs are expected to begin this summer and will come in phases.

    "As part of this, we have laid out clear targets to lower our cost structure to ensure we are lean and fully competitive with the best in the industry," Chief Communications Officer Mark Turby said in a statement.

    This potential layoff runs in the face of climate activists, who often argue that going green creates jobs. The UN even has an article titled: "Green Jobs: the only way to go."

    Ironically, it even provides as an example Sri Lanka, which incorporated "a model to alleviate the impact on livelihoods of severe weather through better management of available water resources."

    As it turns out, the adoption of some European backed green energy policies utterly crippled Sri Lanka's growth so much that the president fled the country after mass protests.

    But it's always green, green, green no matter what..

    This was seen at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meeting, where Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg basically said the quiet part out loud. Some of the elites don't care that families are in pain if it could mean they rush to adopt electric vehicles.

    "The more pain we are all experiencing from the high price of gas, the more benefit there is for those who can access electronic vehicles," Buttigieg explained to Rep. Carlos Gimenz (R-Fla.) as he asked the committee to "reconsider opposing the reduction of EV upfront prices with tax credits."

    "So you're saying the more pain we have, the more benefit we're going to get," Gimenez responded.

    Buttigieg immediately tried to back track, saying, "Of course-no."

    But the pain that families are experiencing seem to mean little to those in power.

    After a bit of contentious backwards and forwards over Buttigieg's comments, he finally said, "I know you want me to say it so bad. Honestly, sir, what we're saying is that we could have not pain at all by making EVs cheaper for everybody, and we'd love to have your support for that."

    The loss of 8,000 jobs in an economy about to sink into a likely recession is not a good thing. Perhaps they could be rehired some on the electric team, but not all if Ford is really looking to make some giant cuts.

    And for families looking at steeper mortgage and credit card bills because of the rise in interest rates, buying a new electric car seems rather absurd.

    There's also no answer on whether there's even enough infrastructure in the country to justify this massive move to electric vehicles. Will there be enough charging stations? Can the electrical grid handle the power demands?

    What if the flood of electric cars on the road means rolling blackouts during the summer and winter months because there's no way for the grid to manage charging electric vehicles and running air conditioning and heating systems?

    Again, there doesn't really appear to be any answer to that question, except to go green.

    As Gov. Roy Cooper signed Executive Order 80, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gases in the state, electric vehicles will become a fixture of North Carolina highways. For more about how electric vehicles are the wrong answer to the right question, click here.