Andrew Bolt: Why Chris Bowen is one of Australia’s most dangerous men

A fact check on the F-150 electric ute’s carbon credentials reveals the let’s-pretend world of Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Chris Bowen last week posed next to giant ute in America, and proved he’s really one of the most dangerous men in Australia.

Bowen must be fantastic at children’s parties. He’d have them in stitches, with his brilliant talent for “let’s pretend”.

But the bad news is that he’s also our Energy and Climate Change Minister. He’s in charge of keeping on our lights, and the power to our factories.

And that’s when his “let’s pretend” could get a lot of Australians hurt, because he’s a zealot, disastrously blind to practical reality.

Bowen pretends there really is a “climate crisis”, and pretends he has a plan that will do something meaningful to stop it – including forcing Australians to buy many more electric cars so they are half of all new car sales in just eight years from now.

To promote that plan, he’s now tweeted a photograph of himself with an electric ute – Ford’s monster F-150 Lightning – and pretended this is the answer to a tradie’s prayers.

Bowen’s tweet just proves how crazy he is. It proves he has no idea how things really work. Or won’t.

Australia’s Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen with Ford’s monster F-150 electric ute.

In it, Bowen sneers that the Coalition had claimed there was no such thing as an electric ute, but check out this F-150 he was posing next to with a maniacal grin.

This F-150 was “hugely popular in America”, he claimed, and “has a range of around 500km can tow boats & caravans & goes like you wouldn’t believe”.

Bowen complained we couldn’t buy this you-beaut ute in Australia because of “poor policies” by past Coalition governments, but he has plans to change that.

Bowen has flagged he’ll effectively ban the competition – many of the cheaper petrol-driven cars we prefer, or at least the gassier ones – by toughening emissions standards.

For instance, the Toyota Hilux, the most popular car sold in Australia, emits more than twice as much greenhouse gas as allowed by Europe’s emissions standards.

But anyone who puts the slightest faith in Bowen’s global warming flim-flam needs their head read.

First a fact check on this F-150 electric ute he’s promoting.

Ford’s battery-powered F-150 Lightning utes have a limited range. Picture: Jeff Kowalsky

Test drives show its range is actually under 470km, and that’s only for the expensive Extended Range model before its giant twin batteries age. In contrast, the Toyota Hilux can go nearly 1000km on one tank of diesel, ideal for long trips in the Australian bush.

Worse, the F-150’s range halves if you tow a double-axle camper. So you’ll drive for just over 200km before needing to find a charger and spend 45 minutes getting the battery up to just 80 per cent capacity. Some holiday, with a quarter of your road trip spent recharging – or more, if there’s a queue at the power point.

Then compare the cost. This F-150 Lightning with the extended range costs around $110,000. That’s 50 per cent more than the top-range Hilux, which goes twice the distance and takes just five minutes to refuel, not 45.

But the bigger hoax is Bowen’s fantasy that the F-150 helps stop global warming.

In fact, it weighs 3 tonnes, 50 per cent more than the Hilux. Think of the extra energy it takes to mine, transport, smelt and manufacture the metals needed to make this behemoth.

The Toyota Hilux is Australia’s most popular car.

And, after all that, this ute will be powered by an Australian grid that still relies on coal and gas for three quarters of our electricity.

Speaking of the grid, Bowen’s plan threatens us all. Can our electricity system even cope with millions more electric cars? Green policies have driven so many coal-fired power stations out of business that we’re already dangerously short of electricity.

The Australian Energy Market Operator this month warned we risked more blackouts in the next three years, particularly in Victoria and South Australia – the most green-obsessed states.

So let’s sum up the let’s-pretend world of Energy Minister Chris Bowen.

Bowen imagines global warming is a catastrophe. False: we’ve never been less likely to die in a climate disaster.

He imagines we can stop it. False: Australia is too small.

He imagines this monster ute is what we need and want. False: It costs more, performs worse, and won’t cut total emissions by much at all.

And he imagines we have the electricity to charge the more than 500,000 electric cars he wants us to buy each year by 2030. False again.

Chris Bowen is a dangerous man. “Let’s pretend” is no way to run a 21st century economy. Lying to ourselves won’t keep on the lights.