General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStudy: Your all-electric car may not be so green.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_CLIMATE_FUEL_EFFECTS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-12-15-15-01-37"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."
The key is where the source of the electricity all-electric cars. If it comes from coal, the electric cars produce 3.6 times more soot and smog deaths than gas, because of the pollution made in generating the electricity, according to the study that is published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They also are significantly worse at heat-trapping carbon dioxide that worsens global warming, it found. The study examines environmental costs for cars' entire life cycle, including where power comes from and the environmental effects of building batteries.
"Unfortunately, when a wire is connected to an electric vehicle at one end and a coal-fired power plant at the other end, the environmental consequences are worse than driving a normal gasoline-powered car," said Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science, who wasn't part of the study but praised it.
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The study finds all-electric vehicles cause 86 percent more deaths from air pollution than do cars powered by regular gasoline. Coal produces 39 percent of the country's electricity, according to the Department of Energy.
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Note that cars hooked up to either natural gas or renewable energy grids pollute a lot less than the coal-mobiles.
bluedigger
(17,086 posts)Both oil and coal are finite, and electrical generation facilities will eventually have to find alternate energy sources. You could write off the environmental deficit currently being sustained by electric cars as a hidden cost of necessary technological development. You can't just wait around until everything runs out and then go, "Now what?"
Maedhros
(10,007 posts)Coal-fired plants will continue to pollute with or without electric cars, and thus coal pollution is not a compelling reason to eschew the deployment of electric cars into the market.
Bandit
(21,475 posts)So this is really inaccurate. also a good portion of america is on hydro power and more and more or delivering power from wind and solar. Also when you are stuck in traffic and just idling for hours on end you produce far more pollutants. I do not believe this study even the slightest.
KG
(28,751 posts)I think this thing that parked next to my bike runs on children's laughter.
KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)tabbycat31
(6,336 posts)One accident with an SUV and you're dead.
IDemo
(16,926 posts)from the long-defunct Corbin Motors.
seveneyes
(4,631 posts)Out in the woods
Or in the city
It's all the same to me
When I'm driving free
The world's my home
When I'm mobile