Posted on 02/08/2016 12:30:59 PM PST by servo1969
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17xh_VRrnMU
Do electric cars really help the environment? President Obama thinks so. So does Leonardo DiCaprio. And many others.
The argument goes like this:
Regular cars run on gasoline, a fossil fuel that pumps CO2 straight out of the tailpipe and into the atmosphere. Electric cars run on electricity. They don't burn any gasoline at all. No gas; no CO2. In fact, electric cars are often advertised as creating "zero emissions." But do they really? Let's take a closer look.
First, there's the energy needed to produce the car. More than a third of the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car comes from the energy used make the car itself, especially the battery. The mining of lithium, for instance, is not a green activity. When an electric car rolls off the production line, it's already been responsible for more than 25,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission. The amount for making a conventional car: just 16,000 pounds.
But that's not the end of the CO2 emissions. Because while it's true that electric cars don't run on gasoline, they do run on electricity, which, in the U.S. is often produced by another fossil fuel -- coal. As green venture capitalist Vinod Khosla likes to point out, "Electric cars are coal-powered cars."
The most popular electric car, the Nissan Leaf, over a 90,000-mile lifetime will emit 31 metric tons of CO2, based on emissions from its production, its electricity consumption at average U.S. fuel mix and its ultimate scrapping.
A comparable Mercedes CDI A160 over a similar lifetime will emit just 3 tons more across its production, diesel consumption and ultimate scrapping. The results are similar for a top-line Tesla, the king of electric cars. It emits about 44 tons, which is only 5 tons less than a similar Audi A7 Quattro.
So throughout the full life of an electric car, it will emit just three to five tons less CO2. In Europe, on its European Trading System, it currently costs $7 to cut one ton of CO2. So the entire climate benefit of an electric car is about $35. Yet the U.S. federal government essentially provides electric car buyers with a subsidy of up to $7,500.
Paying $7,500 for something you could get for $35 is a very poor deal. And that doesn't include the billions more in federal and state grants, loans and tax write-offs that go directly to battery and electric-car makers
The other main benefit from electric cars is supposed to be lower pollution. But remember Vinod Khosla's observation "Electric cars are coal-powered cars."
Yes, it might be powered by coal, proponents will say, but unlike the regular car, coal plant emissions are far away from the city centers where most people live and where damage from air pollution is greatest. However, new research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that while gasoline cars pollute closer to home, coal-fired power actually pollutes more -- a lot more.
How much more?
Well, the researchers estimate that if the U.S. has 10% more gasoline cars in 2020, 870 more people will die each year from the additional air pollution. If the U.S. has 10% more electric vehicles powered on the average U.S. electricity mix, 1,617 more people will die every year from the extra pollution. Twice as many.
But of course electricity from renewables like solar and wind creates energy for electric cars without CO2. Won't the perceived rapid ramp-up of these renewables make future electric cars much cleaner? Unfortunately, this is mostly wishful thinking. Today, the U.S. gets 14% of its electric power from renewables. In 25 years, Obama's U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that number will have gone up just 3 percentage points to 17%. Meanwhile, those fossil fuels that generate 65% of U.S. electricity today will still generate about 64% of it in 2040.
While electric-car owners may cruise around feeling virtuous, the reality is that the electric car cuts almost no CO2, costs taxpayers a fortune, and, surprisingly, generates more air pollution than traditional gasoline cars.
I'm Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus Center.
Roughly 40% of U.S. energy production comes from coal and another 30% comes from natural gas & oil.
Electric cars should be referred to as coal and gas powered cars.
CO2 is as green as one can get.
I like it.
Used to be the Military was as green as you could get, OD that is .
Of course. Electricity is free and clean magic.
That’s why I call them “Coal Burning” cars.
You are demanding that the bottom half of the Bell Curve understand technology, when they can't change their own tires, or check their own oil.
They've been told that "renewable energy" can provide all the amps required to push millions of cars, daily, back and forth to work. Just look the traffic, every morning, and imagine all those cars plugged in, every night, and the first time it snows, all those electric cars, with flat batteries, half way home...
It's a new scale of eugenic stupidity, that jumps, with every new graduating class.
Yes, it is grown on the magical electric trees which are closely related to the magic trees that grow all the free money that Bernie will use to pay for all his programs.
Yes!! Enough with the CO2 BS.
CO2 is not a pollutant!!!!
CO2 pollution is a scam!!!!!
Just imagine where this goes if we....HUMANS....who respire CO2 allow this scam to proceed.
Taxes....registration...limits on life!!!!
OUR LIVES!!!!!!!
Electric often means ozone is put out. Am I wrong? So which is worse, ozone or CO2?
Bloody oath.
Total cost is a very honest indicator of how green something is. If something costs much more than a comparable alternative it is because more energy was consumed and pollution output somewhere.
It is Reagan’s fault. Seriously.
Back before Reagan, environmentalists focused on actual pollutants, i.e., stuff that should not be in the environment and that kills people. The solution, of course, was more taxes and government control over the economy.
Then, largely because of Reagan, the Iron Curtain fell. It became obvious that the countries with the most government control had the worst environments. Much of the former Soviet Union and East Europe was riddled with toxic waste dumps. Meanwhile, successful capitalist countries were steadily cleaning up actual pollution from the environment. Basic Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs. When you do not have to constantly worry about whether you can house and feed your children you can start focusing on cleaning up your environment.
So environmentalists switched their focus to carbon dioxide, a substance that not only should be in the environment, but that is vital to the continued existence of all life on Earth. Why focus on carbon dioxide? Because successful capitalist countries have much higher standards of living then communist and socialist countries and consequently generate and use much more electric power per capita. More electric power necessarily results in the production of more carbon dioxide per capita (if you ignore all of the natural sources of carbon dioxide).
The solution, of course, is more taxes and government control of the economy.
Why does no one talk about what happens to the car after its effective useful life? Is it because the battery in the car is far worse for the environment than the car was ever good for the environment during its active useful life. These multi-thousand dollar batteries have a very long decay life. We will be long gone before these batteries will.
Nope. The batteries are no problem. When they reach the end of their useful life they automatically turn into rainbows and carbon free unicorn farts.
I seem to remember reading an article a few years ago that we dump the batteries in India for reclamation. I could be wrong though.
A lot of our stuff goes to China to be recycled. It is the both beneficial to the environment and to humans. Building a safe and clean earth for everyone! /s (Below is a google search of images).
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