Posted on 06/22/2010 5:18:29 PM PDT by upchuck
My magic wand is on the fritz, otherwise we'd have a big, new federal program to free America from its dependence on oil. Like other environmentalists, I'm sad that the calamity in the Gulf of Mexico hasn't spurred Washington to more vigorously promote America's exit from thiscurse.
The fault may lie with President Obama's timidity, a public scared by major new government programs or fossil-fuel interests flashing their campaign dough. Probably it's all three, but the bottom line is this: An all-out effort to unchain America from hydrocarbons is essential to national security, a healthy environment and economic prosperity in the 21st century. But it's not politically possible.
And so we must look at what's passable. Fortunately, there's one piece to the escape strategy that business leaders, military brass and the buying public all like -- and would create jobs. Most importantly, it has bipartisan support in Congress.
We speak of electric cars, specifically the "Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010." Sponsored by Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., the bill's goal is to electrify half of America's cars and trucks within 20 years. That, its backers say, would cut America's dependence on petroleum by a third. Similar legislation is before the House.
The Senate bill would name at least five communities to be modelsfor electric-vehicle transportation. They would build stations wheremotorists could recharge their cars' batteries. Residents would be offered a $10,000 tax credit to buy electric cars. And the federal government would put $1.5 billion into research for improving electric-car technology.
Electric cars don't appear to be a very hard sell to those who would buy them. The first all-electric model, the Nissan Leaf, will hit the U.S. market at the end of the year. (The batteries will be made in Smyrna, Tenn.) But you won't be able to just pick one up, because the year's production is already sold out. More than two-thirds of the 19,000 preorders are from the United States.
The Chevy Volt will reach showrooms around that time. Its battery range of 40 miles is considerably smaller than the Nissan Leaf's 100 miles, but the Volt has a small gasoline engine to keep the car going if a recharging station is not handy.
In any case, more than 75 percent of Americans commute 40 miles or less a day. That means most of them could plug in their Volts at the end of the day and drive off fully charged in the morning.
Being both an environmentalist and a fan of high automotive performance can be awkward. But car makers are learning to put zoom into their fuel-efficient models. The Ford Fusion Hybrid, for example, gets 41 miles-a-gallon in the city, but can pull away from a stoplight at a respectable pace. "Sustainable mobility solutions" need not be as boring as they sound.
What about the source of the electric power? Although an all-electric vehicle puts out zero emissions, that is probably not true of the plant that provides the electricity. While California has moved its mix of electricity sources toward clean, renewable energy, other parts of America are still highly dependent on dirty, coal-powered plants.
However, electric cars cut global warming pollution even where coal supplies the power, according to a study by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash. That's because cars plugged in overnight employ unused capacity in the current electric system.
So let the brawl over cap-and-trade proceed. Outside of the oil business, most everyone seems enthusiastic about accelerating a move toward electric cars. Nothing should stop Congress from revving up the process.
Right?
agreed.
I've also seen liberals who want electric cars standing four square against nuclear power plants. Is that rich or what?
Where or where do they think electricity comes from? My guess? They really do believe it comes from "the wall"... no smoke stacks coming from the wall - no coal mining - or drilling or any of those ugly conservative realities... sticking out of their wall. Just a plug and an outlet... soooooo clean. So simple. So stupid.
Which isn't hard at all, the Toy's of that era were built uber-tough, the quality dial at the factory was really dialed up high.
Better still, lets make giant electric conveyor belts for people to drive on, ha ha! They’d shut off their cars while on the belt. I’d have to go slow enough for people to enter and exit, or have entrance and exit ramps of succeeding speeds. The cost to build it would be horrendous, though. I don’t know how much electricity it would use.
Electric cars have unique safety issues:
http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/767422-196/electric-cars-have-unique-safety-issues.html
Loads of fancy good sounding words and NOTHING to back them up. Magic Wand my.... What does she think sits in the White House.
No more glittering words and nice ideas - just the facts and nothing but the facts.
***Which means that you won’t really have to burn coal to produce the electricity to power the car. ***
Your sarc tag has meaning. Some turbine dirven gas fired plants can shut down after the peak load drops. Coal plants are so complicated to start that they NEVER shut down in the evenings.
Also, there is no “unused’ power being produced. If you plug in electric autos after the peak load the plants must still produce more electricity to charge those batteries.
No, silly: it's not yet economically possible for us to maintain our lifestyles on batteries.
I am not going to address the rest: the author's argumentation is at a sophomore level.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.