Little Green Lies: Why Electric Cars Won’t Save the Environment

americanthinker.com ^ | 7/27/2016 | Larry Alton

[dhs12345]

Electric cars probably use the same design as hybrids so energy lost in braking is used to charge the battery packs versus dissipated in heat in the brake pads and brake drums.

However, the original energy is provided by the power plant and whatever means used to spin the turbines.

[dhs12345]

I mean fusion. :)

Fission has too many issues and is too politically charged. Remember fukushima, etc.?

[ModelBreaker]

We have to take our electricity from any source the greens leave standing. I wouldn’t take a kw less from coal until the green publicly apologize and admit they were lying about nuclear. Even then they are probably lying and will be back with die-ins in five years, about the time the nuclear plants should come on line. You cannot fix green. They are stuck in their fear and self-righteousness.

The problem is, you give up one source without having an alternative locked in and you are putting a whole society at risk.

[notdownwidems]

You will have to produce large bulky batteries, which will get replaced every three to four years. Where these go, and how much they charge you for disposal have not been clear. Also, there’s tons of power required each night to recharge these cars....if you had 50-percent of the nation forced into recharging....will the grid support that nightly?

You really have to wonder about these leftists, who tout themselves as the smartest people in the room...no 1, an electric car is made of the same materials as any other car, which means it's pollution signature is the same...no 2, do you know what kind of deadly chemicals it takes to make and maintain the batteries in electric cars? They are worse than that of an internal combustion engine. no. 3, where do you think the energy comes from when you plug that electric car in? usually a coal or natural gas fired power plant! They do absolutely nothing for the environment, but they do make leftists feel better about themselves, which I guess is the whole point anyway.

[onedoug]

How much per gallon per electric charge-up?

[BlueLancer]

"...when I remove the lead-acid battery from one of my vehicles, I drop off the old one at pretty much any auto parts store to be recycled. Zero "out of pocket" charge to me."

Not being very knowledgeable regarding electric car batteries, but aren't those things extremely large? I don't think that it would be a function of just pulling "a battery"; wouldn't you need a power-lift or block-and-tackle just to remove it from the vehicle? I don't think you're going to be able to do a turn-in/replacement just anywhere ...

[Red Badger]

Themselves excluded, of course......................

[rktman]

If the enviro wankers REALLY, REALLY cared, they would, for the good of the erf, remove themselves from the equation. Sadly, they are tasked with annoying the rest of us.

[dhs12345]

Of course. It is for the unwashed masses, not them.

And the second after each of the groups realizes that life isn't unicorns and lollipops without cheap power, they’ll be whining and will be too stupid to realize or too stubborn admit that it was their fault.

[dhs12345]

Agreed! Funny how they don't offer their lives for mother earth. Mother earth needs fertilizer! I don't get it. /sarc.

When real hardship exists, which none of them have ever known because of this great country and our great industrial machine, they'd be whining like babies. Hardship that they created!

It would really hit them hard when their iphones stopped working and they can't play pokemon go or they can't cook their tofu burgers because their electric stove thingy doesn't work. Or they can't buy their tofu burgers because the store doesn't stock them — as we all know, food comes from the grocery stores.

[rktman]

I simply refer to them as ungrateful snots of America. They should be kissing the ground every morning that they weren’t born in some 3rd world crap hole like Mogadishu. All the while wearing synthetic clothing from patagonia or some other erf friendly company.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Not being very knowledgeable regarding electric car batteries, but aren't those things extremely large? I don't think that it would be a function of just pulling "a battery""

For the Nissan Leaf, the battery pack is 61.8 x 46.8 x 10.4 inches.

"wouldn't you need a power-lift or block-and-tackle just to remove it from the vehicle?

Highly unlikely that removal is from the top. More likely is to use a "drive on" hydraulic lift, raise the car, and drop the battery. If I were designing it, the battery "caddy" would be hinged at the front, and just drop down at the rear. With that design, you could actually do the swap in your driveway with a bit of effort.

"I don't think you're going to be able to do a turn-in/replacement just anywhere ...

Of course not....in probably 99% of the cases it would be done at the dealership, just like you would for a repair that requires pulling an IC engine. But there are probably some masochists out there who would "do it themselves".

[dhs12345]

Agreed. 100%.

Unfortunately, you can't fix that kind of ignorance.

Well actually you can, but that would require that all of those little ingrates to live in a third world country (like Mogadishu) run by a despot. Not knowing if they are going to be murdered or if they will have enough to eat or have clean water. They might die from the experience but they would be wiser.

All of the silly absurdities that are important to them now like their clothing or if McDonalds serves healthy food would be insignificant after the real life experience that you mention.

BTW, I equate them to the hippies of the 60s. Another group of malcontents who exploited our innocence as a nation while the Communists were murdering their people by the millions.

[dfwgator]

[Still Thinking]

Fission, not fusion. If they ever manage to get a fusion plant producing power, that’ll be something.