The Realignment: Our Book of the Year Selections

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Welcome Back to The Realignment

We’re in the last stretch of the working part of 2021. Since we’re a week out from Christmas, we want to send out our list of our favorite books we read/listened to this year. If you’re looking to support independent booksellers and also want to support the show (we get 10% of every sale from our Bookshop storefront).

Keep your suggestions coming. We’ll feature them in our end of the year email next week.

The Realignment’s Books of the Year 2021

Here’s a brief selection of some of our favorite books.

The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915

Alpha: Eddie Gallagher and the War for the Soul of the Navy Seals

Rock Me on the Water: 1974 - The Year Los Angeles Transformed Movies, Music, Television and Politics

The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914

Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War

The Realignment’s Books of the Year 2020: In case you missed our selections last year.

This Week’s Episodes

Episode 185: Mark Yzaguirre: Realignment or Not, Normies Get Votes

(Audio) (Video)

Episode 184: Steve LeVine: The U.S. and China’s Great EV Battery War and the Next Supply Chain Crunch

(Audio) (Video)

Audience Response of the Week

Cameron Feil writes:

Hey guys I love your show, it was #2 on my spotify list this year. I especially liked your last episode with Steve Levine as it touched on a topic that I spend more of my working hours on.

I am a content writer for one of the biggest telematics companies called Geotab. I specifically write thought leadership articles on fleet vehicle electrification and the impact of EV charging on the grid (from an electric utility standpoint).

https://www.geotab.com/blog/author/cameron-feil/ (EV fleet)

https://www.geotab.com/blog/category/smart-charging/ (EV Energy, all ghostwritten by me)

While I felt that Mr. Levine made a lot of good points there are a few things I wanted to add. I obviously have a bit of a bias, something you guys discussed, but I feel I am fairly objective. I have not drank the kool-aid nor do I worship at the altar of Musk.

The first thing I wanted to push back on is the notion that EVs aren't a sure thing. It is still in the early days, and anyone who says they can predict anything these days is a fool, but I feel like there is a lot more certainty about EV adoption. Over the last couple of years there have been significant government mandates surrounding EVs around the world. Some countries are banning the sale of new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, this includes Norway, Canada, South Korea, the UK and Israel to name a few. States and Provinces (such as California) have also implemented these mandates. Most of these go into effect in the 2030s, but it is still a strong signal. These are not the only mandates being implemented. Some cities are already implementing "zero-emission areas" which restricts the use of ICE vehicles. Essentially, any non-EV will be fined for driving in designated areas. Pilot programs have been done in Amsterdam and Barcelona. While most consumers aren't really worried about this yet, commercial fleets are. This brings me to my next point.

More and more fleets are beginning to investigate EVs (which is a large focus of my division). While "saving the environment" is the reason a lot of companies will say they are making the switch, there is another more prevalent one. EVs have a much lower operating cost than traditional vehicles. They require significantly less ongoing maintenance and electricity is one a whole cheaper, more importantly electricity prices are much more stable than fossil fuel prices as they are heavily regulated. Although their purchase price is much higher there are still situations where the operating costs actually overcome the expense, resulting in a lower total cost of ownership. As prices continue to fall, as a result of either rebates or cheaper batteries (which have come down significantly over the last decade), they will become even more economical. While many are focusing on consumer EVs I think the commercial sector is where you will see the most change. You can already see it happening with last-mile delivery fleets, buses (both school and transit) and other short-range applications. I am not sure about long haul trucking, I feel like that might be the one area where Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles might actually make the most sense.

Assuming you are still reading this, here are just a few other tidbits.

Pickup trucks are a North American phenomenon, no-one in Europe or anywhere else really uses them. Even in the commercial sectors, contractors etc are more likely to use cargo vans. That being said, In 2020 the top three most sold vehicles in the U.S. were the Ford F-Series, Chevrolet Silverado and Ram Pickup. All pickup trucks. You Americans love your trucks, even if you two personally don't get them (this Canadian doesn't get the appeal either).

I agree that I feel like Tesla is overvalued, it is not really a fair comparison to simply compare them to another vehicle OEM. They are also the most dominant and reliable charging network, they have their solar division with the in-home batteries and they are now officially an energy provider in the state of Texas. All of these are under the Tesla name. So while they are the most dominant name in the EV industry, they accounted for 63% of all US EV sales in 2020, they are much more.

Lastly, many US electric utility companies are looking at EVs as a distributed energy resource. They foresee a future where they can essentially access the energy from EVs during peak periods in order to avoid having to fire up peaker plants (usually coal or natural gas) in order to meet demand and then "fill" them back up when demand is low. It kind of works in a similar fashion as Smart Thermostats that turn off the AC during the peak periods. They also see them being used as back up generators for hospitals or other critical institutions during a crisis. I am a little skeptical of these grand notions, but there is probably something more to it. If it is something you would be interested in hearing more about I can expand on it more. Well I hope you found some of this interesting, keep doing what you are doing.

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