Why Your All-Electric Car May Not Be So Green

ABC News ^ | December 15, 2014 | By SETH BORENSTEIN AP Science Writer

[Oldeconomybuyer]

People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming.

Ethanol isn't so green, either.

"It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean ... are not better than gasoline."

[Pining_4_TX]

Like Peter Pan?

[nascarnation]

The ag lobby does have a lot of horsepower.

The Dems were BRILLIANT when they put food stamps under control of the Agriculture Dept.

[molson209]

Like Peter Pan?

Is it a Fairy ?

[Steely Tom]

An electric car is basically a coal fired car.

Where I live, it would be a nuclear-powered car.

[Pining_4_TX]

The homos love Peter Pan.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Being “green” is about being self-righteous, not right.

[Blood of Tyrants]

We have subsidized ethanol to the tune of billions of dollars and it hasn’t done anything but burn food.

[melsec]

That is just the perfect response!

[ColdSteelTalon]

How much pollution and poison does it take to build one electric car??

[TexasFreeper2009]

I tried to tell the environmental wacko’s exactly this when they originally started pushing the whole electric car thing and they didn’t want to listen.

Oh well, one thing you can count on, the left ALWAYS getting it wrong.

[Reaganez]

This study and ones like it assume gasoline powered car’s pollution starts at the tailpipe. It does not. Gasoline itself requires 6-9 kilowatts of electricity to refine plus diesel to transport the gasoline from refinery to gasoline station. Then electricity to pump from gas station tank into car tanks.

“Well to wheel” electric cars are always more efficient and less polluting. A little or a lot depending on sources of electricity for cars and refineries.

And electric cars don’t support the global price of oil. Which support Czar Vladimir, King Abdullah,Caliph Ibrahim,Ayatollah Khamenei, and President-for-Life Maduro.

[SVTCobra03]

I would prefer the 650hp 2015 Corvette Z06 or the 707hp 2015 Dodge Challenger Hellcat.

[deweyfrank]

And what happens to all those batteries when those cars become junk? That will be an environmental nightmare IMO.

[nascarnation]

I’m not an ev fan, but battery recycling is a pretty well established business. In the US alone, approx 100m car batteries are recycled per year.

[Calvin Locke]

The LSM just getting around to parroting Rush Limbaugh without admitting he was saying this at least a decade ago.

[Drango]

battery recycling is a pretty well established business...

Conventional yes...but lithium is a different problem.

[Sacajaweau]

add the lightbulbs to the mix

[Myrddin]

My 2008 Mercury Mariner Hybrid is approaching 98,000 miles. In Pocatello, ID we have extremes of weather. The consequence is that Winter yields 21 MPG. Summer yields 26 MPG. Spring/Fall yields 28 MPG. The only time it every approached the promised 32 MPG was on a very mild week in San Diego. No heater. No air conditioning. Steady travel on the cruise control. The hybrid never yielded the promised economy. The promised tax break of $3,000 turned into $1202 on my tax return, so the tax break didn't compensate for the failure to deliver economy vs the higher price tag. The leather seats are nice. The nav system was fine until the internal DVD drive failed. Replacement of the nav system would have beem $1300. We put in a nicer sound system and ditched the nav system. C'est la vie.

[CdMGuy]

“But if the power supply comes from natural gas, the all-electric car produces half as many air pollution health problems as gas-powered cars do.”

OK, that makes sense to me but what if cars were fueled by natural gas. I suspect that would be better than natural gas fired turbines supplying electricity in order to charge car batteries.

We have a near inexhaustible supply of clean burning natural gas. However, the oil companies are interested in selling gasoline, so natural gas filling stations are few and far between.

[SoFloFreeper]

a new study finds their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global warming. Ethanol isn't so green, either. "It's kind of hard to beat gasoline" for public and environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. "A lot of the technologies that we think of as being clean ... are not better than gasoline."

Sarah Palin told us that...wait for it....MORE THAN FIVE YEARS AGO!