We are in a the midst of a mega-heat wave or, as a talk show host I listen to has said, “It’s a schvitz.” (A schvitz is Yiddish word meaning steam bath. It can also be verb: “It was so hot and humid we were all schvitzing.”)

However, the humidity has dropped – by half – so I don’t know if these next few days will be “schvitz-worthy.” What I do know, though, is that with temperatures hovering around 100 degrees, it’s going to be hot.

Thankfully, our air conditioning (which was interrupted on Wednesday due to an unexplained and unexpected power outage) is supposed to be working. For those who don’t have a/c, cooling stations will be open throughout Glendale including the Sparr Heights Community Center. (You can read more in this week’s paper about the city’s suggestions on how to keep cool.)

Wednesday’s power outage did bring to mind another dilemma if long-term electric interruptions occur: how does that affect electric vehicles?

We in California have been bombarded with messages declaring that the need to move away from fossil fuels to electric vehicles (EVs) is essential for the betterment of the climate. However, according to tech magazine The Verge, one of the problems is that EVs run on batteries, which need minerals like nickel, cobalt, and lithium.

“The U.S. has some of these minerals underground, and it wants to dig them up, expeditiously, so that it doesn’t have to rely as much on other countries, including China,” states The Verge article, “The shift to electric vehicles is about to overwhelm meager U.S. mining operations.”

But challenges are coming from tribal leaders and environmental groups that are concerned with how digging up these minerals will affect water quality and the land.

So, with California banning the sale of gas-powered vehicles beginning in 2035, will there be enough EVs to go around?

And I hate to be even more of a wet blanket but, after talking to

Pete Smith, general manager of Bob Smith Toyota in La Crescenta, while the intentions “are great” in owning an EV so the U.S. will be less dependent on fossil fuels, the challenge is getting there.

People think because they’re driving a battery-operated car they’re not using fossil fuels, he said. But consideration has to be given about the use of raw materials to create the car. Those materials have to be mined and mining creates greenhouse gases, not to mention refining the materials. While these are comparable to the manufacture of a gasoline car, the real tipping point is in the battery – its production and ultimate disposal. And affordability has to be factored in as well.

Finally, I question the reliability of a power source that we Californians are repeatedly told is unreliable.

There are a lot of questions that have to be answered before I climb aboard the (electric-powered) band wagon.