What? There are all kinds of empirical facts.

I was with you on the leaf blowers, but the rest of this is just misinformed nonsense. In fact, it's such commonly regurgitated nonsense that it actually has a name: the long tailpipe myth.

"FACT: Electric vehicles typically have a smaller carbon footprint than gasoline cars, even when accounting for the electricity used for charging."

https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/electric-vehicle-myths

"A petrol car contributes 125g of CO2 per kilometre, while an electric car using traditional and renewable energy sources only contributes 57g."

https://www.agl.com.au/discover/sustainability/electric-cars-better-petrol-cars

"although electric cars' batteries make them more carbon-intensive to manufacture than gas cars, they more than make up for it by driving much cleaner under nearly any conditions."

https://climate.mit.edu/ask-mit/are-electric-vehicles-definitely-better-climate-gas-powered-cars

I could go on and on. There are countless articles and studies that demonstrate why electric cars are better right now and will continue to get better as electric power generation continues to move to cleaner renewable sources.