This is the output from most Electric Cars
It’s really irritating to constantly hear that electric vehicles have 0 tailpipe emissions (I saw this picture, and couldn’t resist). It’s true, but it’s also a big lie — it’s misleading. Yes, the adaption of electric vehicles CAN reduce our carbon footprint, IF our power grid is made cleaner which MIGHT happen if we adapt electric vehicles AND we used the increase lobbying power of the industry and activists to put pressure on our government to clean up the grid.
When I ask the average person who is interested in electric vehicles what is primary source of electric power, it’s incredible how many think it’s solar and have no idea of the breakdown in the US:
This varies considerably by state with West Virginia being among the dirtiest (Coal), Vermont having a lot of “cleaner” nuclear, Montana having a lot of clean hydroelectric (lots of mountains), and California having quite of bit of natural gas which is cleaner than coal, but still about 50% as much carbon footprint.
This also varies considerably by country. For example:
Electric Vehicles are pretty clean in France and Switzerland, and they’re pretty dirty in the US, unless you live in Vermont or Montana.
Then you need to compare an electric Vehicle with a hybrid which is about 50% cleaner than a non-hybrid car. (They both require similar technologies)
More details (See this book — the data is old, but the points are good for debating)
Buying an electric vehicle today in the US will do two things
- Increase carbon emissions
- Increase the lobbying power of the electrical vehicle related industries which MIGHT go up against the oil lobby to push harder to clean up our power grid AND promote electric vehicle policies
What else will help? Educated activists and people to give money to NGO’s to weave a good story and push government policies with their own lobbyists. Politicians are order takers, they push the policies requested by their donors. Very few have an original thought or understand anything more complicated than how to toast a piece of bread and put butter on it. And their donors are mostly highly paid industry lobbyists. We need to counter with more deep involvement that goes beyond casually reading and responding to all the noise on social media. Our future depends on our engagement. We need to take the reigns of our future, and we need to be smart and organized. Otherwise, we have no right to complain.
NOTE: You also might be able to help if you have the money to buy a electric vehicle, and put a lot of solar panels on your roof (costing around $35K, not to mention you need a big house or a lot of property), and can manage the inconvenience of mostly charging off your own solar infrastructure. But of course, if you really cared about the environment, you might not have such a big house, or live in the city and drive very little.
