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Will buying an electric car make an environmental difference?
Mercury News ^
| 4/4/11
| Paul Rogers
Posted on 04/04/2011 3:01:04 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
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To: steelyourfaith
2
posted on
04/04/2011 3:02:28 PM PDT
by
Army Air Corps
(Four fried chickens and a coke)
To: NormsRevenge
Odd, I have heard just the opposite.
3
posted on
04/04/2011 3:02:42 PM PDT
by
freekitty
(Give me back my conservative vote; then find me a real conservative to vote for)
To: NormsRevenge
Most electric cars will be powered by coal.
4
posted on
04/04/2011 3:02:59 PM PDT
by
AU72
To: AU72; All
"Most electric cars will be powered by coal."
5
posted on
04/04/2011 3:05:00 PM PDT
by
musicman
(Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
To: freekitty
But these cars that have a lower carbon footprint are powered by unicorns and good vibes.
To: NormsRevenge
In smoggy cities like Los Angeles, driving one on summer days may actually clean the air...
So, the car has an air intake, air filter, and clean air exhaust to help clean the air? Oh, I see, the reporter is an idiot and thinks that somehow producing fewer emissions is the same as removing CO2 from the air.
7
posted on
04/04/2011 3:06:04 PM PDT
by
Army Air Corps
(Four fried chickens and a coke)
To: NormsRevenge
"But there could be a whole lot of gain in climate change." Points for remembering to say "climate change" in lieu of "global warming", Professor Cahill. But we're still laughing. Another example of bovine flatulence from the hallowed halls of academe, where the buffaloed roam and never is heard a dissenting word.
To: Army Air Corps; Normandy; FreedomPoster; Para-Ord.45; Entrepreneur; tubebender; mmanager; ...
9
posted on
04/04/2011 3:09:08 PM PDT
by
steelyourfaith
("Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." -- Wendell Phillips)
To: NormsRevenge
I suppose that the proponents of the electric roller skates “feel” that the electricity that will charge the not-quite-so “eco-friendly” batteries will be delivered by the “Electric Bunny” (or Electric Fairy), right? No “carbon footprint” there if I’m not mistaken.
Idiots!
10
posted on
04/04/2011 3:12:37 PM PDT
by
Howie66
(I can see November (2012) from my house.)
To: NormsRevenge
Not burning gasoline here just means someone in China gets to burn it. These guys never do real world economics.
11
posted on
04/04/2011 3:15:33 PM PDT
by
DaxtonBrown
(HARRY: Money Mob & Influence (See my Expose on Reid on amazon.com written by me!))
To: NormsRevenge
Since AGW is a fraud, the carbon footprint argument is meaningless. Considering cradle to grave environmental impact, the electrics may have more impact due to the creation and ultimate disposal of batteries. Then of course most will be powered by coal anyway so we are back to the drawing board.
12
posted on
04/04/2011 3:16:25 PM PDT
by
HerrBlucher
("It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged." G.K. Chesterton)
To: NormsRevenge
Tom Cahill "Kind of" an intersting name. Tom McCahill used to be an automotive writer back in the Goodle Days.
How far we have fallen! I miss those days!
13
posted on
04/04/2011 3:17:15 PM PDT
by
prisoner6
(Right Wing Nuts bolt The Constitution together as the loose screws of the Left fall out!)
To: NormsRevenge
I don't think so. You have to plug it into an electrical socket and that power comes from either nuke, coal, or fossil fuel.
14
posted on
04/04/2011 3:19:00 PM PDT
by
SkyDancer
("If You Don't Read The News You're Uninformed, If You Do Read The News You're Misinformed")
To: NormsRevenge
“...even when emissions from generating the electricity are taken into account, electric vehicles have a much smaller carbon footprint than gas-powered vehicles because they are much more efficient.”
Carbon dioxide emissions (not that they really matter) and energy efficiency are two different (if related) things.
Internal combustion engines are (if I remember correctly) about 30% efficient, maybe a bit better if running close to their thermodynamic ideal. Using electric energy to power a drive train is, in fact, a lot more efficient, in terms of the fraction of the total energy that ends up moving the vehicle (somewhere in the neighborhood of 80%, if I remember correctly).
BUT the energy in the battery doesn’t magically appear there - it has to be generated somewhere. If it comes from a coal-fired plant (our most common generation source), you’re talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 to 70% energy wasted in generation losses and transmission losses, which wipes out the benefits described above.
Now if you’re getting your electrons from nukes, it’s a different story - no greenhouse gases, little generation loss, mostly just transmission losses.
But I don’t think people pushing electric cars are going to lobby for a whole bunch of new nuclear plants.
15
posted on
04/04/2011 3:19:51 PM PDT
by
Stosh
To: NormsRevenge
It’s going to be terrible for the environment, think of all those Energizer Bunnies it will take to run them all!
16
posted on
04/04/2011 3:21:58 PM PDT
by
bigbob
(u)
To: NormsRevenge
Take your “Carbon Footprint” and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine.
17
posted on
04/04/2011 3:25:41 PM PDT
by
anoldafvet
(656 days until we're rid of "The Boy Blunder".)
To: NormsRevenge
I like electric cars, they let you know who’s not right without having to talk to them. (paraphrase of an old Hank Hill saying regarding piercings.)
18
posted on
04/04/2011 3:46:34 PM PDT
by
gorush
(History repeats itself because human nature is static)
To: Army Air Corps
CO2 isn't the only pollutant in exhaust. One component of LA air is, for example, products of incomplete combustion. If these are taken into a "cleaner" system, then it could be true that the local effect is to "clean" the air.
19
posted on
04/04/2011 3:50:07 PM PDT
by
Gondring
(Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
To: Stosh
I use recycled electrons, regardless.
20
posted on
04/04/2011 3:51:24 PM PDT
by
Gondring
(Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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