“In light of what happened in Virginia on I-95: a 50-mile back up that lasted over 24 hours,” a reader questions, “I have to wonder what that would have turned into had all of those vehicles been EVs?

“Every vehicle would have needed to be towed after they ran their batteries dead trying to keep occupants from freezing to death. More likely, the incident would have turned into a multi-week backup due to a shortage of tow trucks.”

He snarks: “Maybe they will invent a one gallon can of electricity to help stranded motorists get their EVs off the highway?

“And let’s not forget how bad things got in Texas when they couldn’t provide power to residents because they relied on green energy.

“There are always unforeseen problems with new technology. The problems are always unforeseen because people don’t want to see the problems or acknowledge they exist.”

Our reader raises some interesting points. So, we reached out to our science-and-technology maven Ray Blanco, who’s been spending an extended holiday stay in the Philippines.

Send your opinions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

Your Rundown for Monday, January 24, 2022...

A Blizzard of EVs

“There's no doubt that there are a number of situations and use cases where a traditional internal combustion vehicle will be better than an electric one,” Ray says.

“Getting stuck in traffic for many hours in freezing temperatures is one of them. (Being in a developing country with spotty infrastructure, as I am at the moment, is another.)

“A sufficient and reliable electric grid is a necessity which means there will be tons of internal-combustion vehicles around the world for many years to come.

“Toyota seems to be one of the few – if not the only – automakers that seems understands this; the company has been particularly active in developing hydrogen drive trains which only emit water vapor.

“Which also brings us to the Texas power-outage situation,” he continues. “If green is the goal, Texas is going to have to build out a lot more nuclear energy. The market is already anticipating nuclear, and we are seeing uranium prices spike.

“Although they can be improved with proper methods of energy storage (i.e. giant batteries, solar and wind aren’t reliable sources of zero carbon power.)

“Moreover, electric generation can't simply transition to green methods to reduce or eliminate emissions. We will also need a lot more of it if we are to produce enough electricity to charge the millions of vehicles that drive on our roads every day,” Ray says.

“That will take many years to do, even under the most perfect conditions.”

A fact that wasn’t lost on Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) who was caught in the snowstorm that crippled I-95. It took him 27 hours to travel from Richmond to Washington, D.C.

Kaine said afterward, this is "probably a good infrastructure story. Generally, we're just not as big investors in infrastructure as we should be."

Even if the government is behind the eight ball when it comes to green-energy infrastructure, Ray believes we’re on the brink of an announcement that might alleviate concerns about an EV’s battery life expectancy.

And it has everything to do with the driving force behind green technology… and a key company that holds a transformational patent. The prime time to invest? Before Wednesday, Jan. 26 when Elon Musk makes a presentation to a global audience.

Market Rundown for Monday, Jan. 24, 2022

S&P 500 futures are down 60 points to 4,325.

Oil is down $1.60 to $83.70 for a barrel of WTI.

Gold is down 0.25% to $1,836.30 per ounce.

And Bitcoin’s down more than 5% at the time of writing to $33,230. 

Send your comments and questions to, TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com

We hope you have a great Monday; we’ll be back in a couple days. Take care…

For The Rundown,

Matt Insley
Publisher, The Rundown
TheRundownFeedback@StPaulResearch.com