sure... if it can run on static electricity it pulls out of the air
Posted on 04/04/2011 3:01:04 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Sure, you might get a carpool sticker and a tax break. But if you buy an electric car, will it make much environmental difference?
Experts say that depends on three factors: What were you driving before? How is your electricity generated? And how many other electric cars are going to be sold?
In many cases, people who trade gasoline-powered cars for electric ones won't be dramatically lessening the smog they emit. But when it comes to global warming, even when emissions from generating the electricity are taken into account, electric vehicles have a much smaller carbon footprint than gas-powered vehicles because they are much more efficient. However, it will take a decade or more until enough electric vehicles are on the road to make a significant impact.
"If you have a person who is driving a nice, newer car, having them switch to an electric car, there isn't going to be much benefit in reducing smog," said Tom Cahill, a professor emeritus of physics at UC Davis. "But there could be a whole lot of gain in climate change."
Because all-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf burn no fossil fuels, and plug-in hybrids like the Chevy Volt burn only small amounts of gasoline, tailpipe emissions from electric cars are basically zero. In smoggy cities like Los Angeles, driving one on summer days may actually clean the air because the tailpipe emissions contain less pollution than the air.
Yet most people currently buying electric cars weren't driving old, smog-belching vehicles. They are often affluent motorists who drove newer-model gasoline cars. And because California has for 50 years had the toughest tailpipe standards in the nation, a 2010 gasoline-burning car puts out only 2 percent or less of the pollution spewed by a 1980s model.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
Chevy Volt burn only small amounts of gasoline,
...........................................................
I guess this guy hasn’t been keeping up.
Andrew Farah, said in a briefing yesterday that not only was the 2011 Volt achieving its target of 40 miles of electric range, but it was also meeting the goal of 50 miles per gallon in so-called range-extending mode.
I can get that on a Prius without having to plug it in, and at half the cost to me and no cost of $7500 dollars to the Government.
Of course that is better than the 35 I get on my Camry, but I lose room and when I have to buy a battery it doesn’t cost $4,000 dollars.
I will argue that CO2 isn't a pollutant, no matter what the Supremes rule.
The major pollutant in auto exhausts is (or are) NOx, Nitrogen Oxides.
Me too
I am using them now. We have them delived directly to the house. Very convenient!.
Don’t blow a fuse, but here in NY we pay seperate companies for the supply and delivery (transmission) of the recycled electrons, however. Somebody’s brother in law made a fortune on that one. I find it shocking!
sure... if it can run on static electricity it pulls out of the air
Alot of the people who push for electric vehicles don’t understand where or how electricity is generated.
it comes from the same place all that obama-money comes from...right?
It must, considering how mindlessly it is proposed.
>> “Will buying an electric car make an environmental difference?” <<
.
No.
(until the batteries have to be disposed of)
>> “I use recycled electrons, regardless.” <<
.
But where do you dispose of them when they wear out?
Up here in the People’s Republic of Oregon, there is a proposal in the legislature to impose a mileage tax on electric vehicles. The intent is to offset the revenue lost from gas taxes!
Up here in the People’s Republic of Oregon, there is a proposal in the legislature to impose a mileage tax on electric vehicles. The intent is to offset the revenue lost from gas taxes!
Haven't had that problem--currently, I alternate them. ;-)
NY ain’t the only place like that. In fact, delivery is often separate from transmission.
Meaningless sentence of the day award.
Since when is CO2 a pollutant?
Look up "photosynthesis."
The EPA doesn't say it's necessarily a pollutant. It's the atmospheric concentrations increasing because of human activity.
IANAL, but I believe that legally, it was George H.W. Bush's Clean Air Act that set up the regulation of the six gases, including carbon dioxide.
Scientifically, one might consider it a pollutant if it's added to the system faster than the system can react in quasiequilibrium (or homeostasis).
Look up "photosynthesis."
Okay, I see that in the presence of arsenite, adding carbon dioxide and photons from the sun yields arsenate through photosynthesis. Arsenate can interrupt glycolysis, making 1-arseno-3-phosphoglycerate instead of 1,3-bisphosphoglycerate, losing the energy-carrying adenosine-5'-triphosphate molecule that would have been produced.
Okay, so I guess since that's a natural photosynthetic pathway, arsenic can't be a pollutant even though it is toxic.
And since we're all carbon-based life forms, you wouldn't mind if I dumped soot all over everything. It's natural, after all. Or if I released phosphates and nitrates into the lakes and streams, turning them into stinking messes. Since they're natural and they help the algae grow, they must not be pollutants, right?
And heck, those could come in manure form. It helps plants grow...you wouldn't mind if I spewed it all over everywhere, would you?--it can't be a pollutant, after all.
My, oh, my...what a world that would be.
Gee, why don’t you ever see the question of all that mercury held in the spent batteries in these electric cars and hybrids? I guess that mercury is environmentally ok, just like mercuryt in the new light bulbs < /S>.
Isn’t it wonderful that liberals are so smart, especially those in the EPA and in Congress?
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.