Ballard: EV Tech Can Reduce Oil Dependency, Save Lives
A new book authored by a former mayor of Indianapolis suggests the continued dependence on oil will continue to cost American lives. Greg Ballard, a former U.S. Marine who served in the Persian Gulf War, says he wrote "Less Oil or More Caskets," to protect the future military service members who will continue the current mission in the Middle East.
In an interview on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick, Ballard said the U.S. is in the Middle East primarily to protect the flow of oil for the entire world.
"We’ve been doing that for a long time. It’s cost us a lot of money," said Ballard. "If you look at all of the wars and the annual cost of what we do, it’s been over $5 trillion and 6,000 lives. People don’t know this. They don’t know that we’re doing this and that we have been doing this for a long time. That’s the part that I want to change."
Ballard says there is a solution on the horizon to address the issue. He says 70 percent of the world’s oil is used for transportation and changing the transportation dynamic can lower the world’s dependence on oil.
"EVs, electric vehicles, and some other technologies are staring us in the face and we should embracing that and moving toward that because if that’s 70 percent of the world’s use of oil, then all of a sudden, the Middle East and Russia don’t have the leverage that they do now and it makes a big difference."
Ballard says Indiana has a great history with electric vehicles and he hopes to continue to push the state to continue to embrace that technology.