Posted on 07/08/2009 6:11:46 PM PDT by Kaslin
Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another.
"If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."
The GAO report says a plug-in compact car, if recharged at an outlet drawing its power from coal, provides a carbon dioxide savings of only 4% to 5%. If the feeling of saving the environment from driving an electric car causes people to drive more, that small amount of savings vanishes entirely.
It's much the same effect we saw when the Corporate Fuel Economy Standards were passed in the '70s. Aside from forcing us into less-safe downsized vehicles that increased highway fatalities, the promise of more miles per gallon caused people to drive more miles. The promised energy independence never materialized as we imported more foreign oil than ever before.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
A Captain Obvious moment of clarity.
...uh ... Has the author heard of nuclear energy? Couple it with electric cars, problem solved.
Plug into your garage over nite.... I dont have a garage, and would need a 100 foot cord, made out of oil bi products, to run to my car, and hope nobody steals the cord over night..and some people live in 100 story hi rises, that will be handy.. run an extension cord down in front over every ones scenic view...
Even with coal, it’s still a good idea...provided they come up with some decent batteries. I don’t see that happening for at least 25 more years though.
I’m all for nuke plants.
And the bonus is, if we go nuke for domestic electricity, we won’t need electric cars.
Give me a good old fashioned V8.
Read the whole article; he’s calling for nuclear power development.
They need to sprinkle pixie dust on this problem, that will solve it. Oh I forgot, they also need to use that magic wand.
did you look at the car in the editorial? I would rather walk before I would get into something like that
It will hopefully cause people to drive gas guzzlers more if they can afford it.
Gimme a break. It wouldn’t be too hard to run power in an underground conduit to a recharging station at every parking spot. Parking meters with electrical outlets.
Don’t give them any ideas.
They are JUST NOW realizing this basic fact?
God, the cost of smug sure is high!
You’d change your mind after the first few days. Unless you are incredibly dense.
There are a multitude of reasons that electric cars are no solution as the technology exists right now.
But the “greenhouse gas” argument is complete and utter hogwash.
As I have pointed out many times over the last 30 years, most of the pie in the sky so called greener solutions are in the big picture, dirtier than coal and oil. And the GG portion of the argument is a hoax.
Problem is that electric cars are not rechargeable in the same timeframe that gasoline cars are. That, and they are more expensive.
Gas fillup = 5 minutes
Electric fillup = ???
If the alternative is less capable and more expensive, people will not switch.
I so love that sentence. What more needs to be said?
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