In order for a car to run, something has to be burned. Is it Coal, Gas or the Environment? Should we burn it under our hoods in power plants?
Let me start by saying that I’m a big supporter of electric vehicles. Let me continue by saying that there is nothing renewable about the plug in electric car. (At least the way they are being powered right now.)
Sure, when you are driving your electric car (EV) around, there is nothing coming out the tail pipe, instead, it’s coming out of the coal plant smoke stack.
We live in a world of half truths and misconceptions. You will never see an EV manufacturer with an ad that say that their car is “Powered by Coal.” But don’t let appearances fool you, coal companies love the idea of electric vehicles. It’s a new niche, you see, that they can see themselves being a part of. Coal companies make no money on cars burning gasoline, but plugging one in to the electric grid, now that’s another story!
The question becomes, as the lesser of two evils, which is better for human health and for the environment?
A recent Government Accountability Office study reported that a plug-in compact car, if it is recharged at an outlet drawing its juice from coal, provides a carbon dioxide savings over gasoline of only 4 to 5 percent. A plug-in SUV provides a carbon dioxide savings of 19 to 23 percent.
Does driving that “clean car” make you think that you can drive it farther and more often? Well then there go those savings.
Lets take something else into consideration. Lithium.
The GAO reports that “extracting lithium (for lithium batteries) from locations where it is abundant, such as in South America, could pose environmental challenges that would damage the ecosystems in those areas.”
At the same time, about half of the worlds lithium reserves are in Bolivia. A major shift to lithium-powered cars “could substitute reliance on the foreign resources (oil) for another (lithium),” the GAO writes.
So how much does Big Coal love the electric car? Duke Energy, a power company has lobbyists working in Washington for electric car subsidies and actually promotes these cars on its web site.
Is there a lithium lobby? You bet there is. FMC Corp. is the largest lithium producer in the United States. The company employs a dozen lobbying firms and operates its own political action committee. (PAC)
Let me ask you the hard question. As a society, how can we condemn coal and advocate Electric Vehicles? It’s easy.
Coal doesn’t have to be our fuel of choice for electricity. In Australia, they are putting up car charging stations fueled by wind power. Other considerations are Hydropower, Bioenergy, Geothermal Energy, Solar Energy and Ocean Energy or a combination or all or some of these supplying power into a smart grid.
Bio-fuel cars are also an alternative, though not under the Corn Ethanol umbrella that everyone is trying to sell us. Algae based bio-fuel seems to have great hope.
It’s time for us to stop believing what everyone is telling us. Especially when the people telling us things have a financial interest in our believing them. It’s time for us to start really thinking. It’s time for us to start altering the eco.
Buy that electric car, but get behind alternative fuel systems and other types of renewable energy. Keep up the good fight!
photo credit: internets_dairy
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However, the gas station electricity is powered by coal, and if you aren’t going to the gas station anymore….
David, that’s for sure.
Great piece examining critical questions, with some good answers. It is important to note that there are some places, with more hydro, geothermal, wind nuclear and solar powered grids that leave a cleaner plug in footprint. Maybe the solar lobby can push for pv coatings on cars that would charge the plug-in cars when they are in the sun.
Solar groupies,
I’m all for rooftop pv coatings on cars. Prius is experimenting with it right now. They may not make the car “go” but they may be able to power vital systems like A/C, windows etc… that would act as a power drag on the battery.
EV’s are important because of the flexibility they introduce. Electrons can come from anything source of electricity, not just coal. For example a recent report I looked at (”Well-to-Wheels Analysis of Biofuels and Plug-In Hybrids” from Argonne Labs) had a table of various “fuels” and emissions, showing yes that EV’s on a coal mix of electricity have only modest emissions savings, but EV’s on the “California mix” (high in natural gas) have huge emissions savings.
Good to know David,
I didnt run CNG (clean natural gas) through the equation in the article, but alternatives and choice is good.
http://www.benzeneleukemialawblog.com/2009/05/articles/benzene/informationnews/natural-gas-drilling-pollution-debate-heats-up-around-marcellus-shale/
because i live in both oil and gas drilling areas, this is of concern to me. socalled clean natural gas is maybe not.
Phew…for a minute there I was getting concerned till I read further down the post about wind powered electricity to charge the cars. It all makes total sense.
Yes yes yes we must all keep up the good fight. Same with any product we buy. Spend some time to check every angle as best as you can. And the earth will continue to flourish. It’s definitely time to stop being fooled by all this very very clever greenwash.
I am hoping for an electric car in the next year …. my fuelling supplier will be checked out thoroughly.
Great post and some good links too! Thanks Karen
You are very welcome Karen. Good luck with the electric car next year. Still better than gas and they will be even better when charged with renewable energy!
Good arguments Adam, though I don’t fully agree with your initial premise: “In order for a car to run, something has to be burned.” While I agree with you that, at base, something is likely burned in the manufacturing of every vehicle, the fuel used to power electric vehicles are not necessarily coal. You start exploring that towards the end of the piece, but while this country gets roughly 50% of its electricity from coal, some regions have much lower percentages of coal in their energy portfolios (I’m looking at you Oregon and Washington).
Now, I’m not sure about the assumptions made in the GAO report (i.e whether that was a comparison of 100% coal v. 100% petroleum), but to reduce this complex issue down to a coal v. gasoline debate misses regional variations in our current energy mix and where we are heading with it in the future.
I agree with you Tim, and really respect your opinion. I’ve read a lot of your work.
I would have liked to explore how renewable energies can fit into an electric vehicle future, a little further, but for sake of length, I did not. As you know, this is a very complex issue, and we will continue to cover it from all angles.
The regional variations in reference to current energy mix and how that equates to possible interplays into a smart grid is something that I look forward to writing on.
For those of you who don’t know Tim, I’ve been a secret fan of his for a long time, and he can be found at http://ecopolitology.org/
Thanks for the comment Tim.
One thing we absolutely need to address is the country’s power grids. Regardless of our where the power comes from (coal to sun…) the mix of decent to downright archaic power grids spanning the country (and the globe) wastes a lot of energy. This is also something our gov’t should be pushing.
This is not the most solution filled post but gives you and idea….
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-04/gp_intro