Plugging In

Here is an article that should make most rational people get rid of their gas-powered cars and go electric (when the EV price becomes “reasonable”):

http://evworld.com/article.cfm?storyid=1715

“America’s Irrational Petroleum Dependence”

“The electricity used to refine oil alone would power cars further than what’s in the rest of the barrel”

“Logically, it’s quite mad to expend the barrel of oil when the energy used to process it, without using the barrel of oil at all, would accomplish the same goal, i.e., to power individual auto transport for the average use (i.e., individual automobile cars).”

“So what does it all prove? The obvious fact is that, as a nation, we don’t use the most efficient means to run cars, we use the method that results in the most profit - and the most controlled profit stream — that benefits the Standard Oil Trust “Seven Sisters” oil companies and evidently bribed officials in Congress. And in the administration.
Note that generation of electricity via natural gas now costs less then 4 cents per kWh, which is expended to produce much more profitable, but less efficient and more socially objectionable, fuel for IC cars.
This analysis, then, sort of pulls the mask off the claim that the oil market is a free market, or that our energy policy is rational.
END STORY”

I strenuously object to plug-in electric cars. The technology is old and depends on getting the electricity from a plug--- where does the electricity ultimately come from? Coal? Hydro? How can you be sure? This is only OK if you have your own solar panels on your house and don't plug it in anywhere else. This type of vehicle would be a nightmare on the east coast where their electricity comes from coal plants. The coal comes from mountain top removal and then pollutes the air--- a disaster environmentally. Dammed streams are an environmental disaster also. The best solution is a car with new battery technology that recharges the batteries while running. I don't want to exchange one fossil fuel for another or destroy ecosystems for energy. We need new technology to solve our energy problems, not old. We should not rush to produce plug-in cars just so the consumer can enjoy cheaper, but environmentally dangerous, plug in electric energy.

its a good idea to keep the air cleaner.

I fully concur with concerns about global warming. However, there needs to be a higher level of discussion about how this should be dealt with. There are some alarming errors getting into the planning. When these are fully understood, it will be quite embarrassing where actions are based on such misinfomation.

Certainly, switching from gasoline to electric methods of propelling cars has a benefit of reducing USA dependence on foreign oil. Emissions are quite another matter. First, the "Zero emission" claim is offensive. No person should be allowed to graduate from high school who believes this nonsense. It had some historical validity when the "zero" meant that there were no local emissions, but even then it just meant someone else got to deal with them, and maybe if diluted it was ok. But now that we know CO2 to be a problem, the "zero emission" claim is idiotic beyond belief.

As far as CO2 goes, the only possible redemption for electric cars is if they use a lot less energy. Tesla has a very low frontal area so it works ok in that regard. However, the high performance is not without cost. Sure they get some of their energy back with regenerative braking. (But try to find out what the battery charging and discharging efficiency is.) Correction, the original little Tesla had that low frontal area - - not so low with the recent big one. Fisker Karma is worse yet, having no redeeming efficiency in its vehicle form.

Now to address the never ending claims that somehow coal will not be the fuel source used to respond to additional load of each EV. Even if we in California switch to more natural gas, the effect of using that natural gas, under basic economic rules, would be to increase the market price of natural gas. The rest of the USA will have none of that, so they will buy less of that natural gas, and of course, they will buy and use more coal. Thus, the intended accomplishment in California is a myth. Every electric vehicle will result in added use of coal somewhere until all coal power plants are salvaged.

The problem is that there is no real way to change this without greatly penalizing coal. That might happen with "cap and trade" or simpler taxation; if and when it does the marginal (response to incremental increase in use) fuel will shift to natural gas. Watch out for the price of natural gas under that scenario.

Now look at the NRDC-EPRI study (widely quoted as proof that plug-ins are great) which is linked from http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/mar09/8409 (Look at comments for references to the NRDC-EPRI and further discussion.) It will become clear that for natural gas based electricity, there could be some reduction in CO2 emitted by making a Prius into a plug-in, but not a lot; but for coal which is the more probable source, the plug-in substantially degrades the production Prius and CO2 emissons increase.

Now think about a Hummer converted into a hybrid and then into a plug-in hybrid. (Yes that could happen. Look at what Andy Grove says at http://whatmatters.mckinseydigital.com/energy/an-electric-plan-for-energ... ) For those who think converting the Hummer to a hybrid Hummer will be a big efficiency gain, yes there will be some gain, but we can be assured, it will not begin to perform like the Prius. Now make that Hummer hybrid into a plug-in and see what will happen. By comparison with the Prius plug-in we should expect the plug-in Hummer to be worse than the hybrid Hummer for coal based electric power; probably the CO2 will be worse than the original gasoline guzzler Hummer. For natural gas based electric power some time in the future there will be a slight gain in CO2 as a result of making conventional cars into plug-ins.

If you think I am being alarmist about the Hummer, check out how GM planned to proceed about a year ago. http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/PDF/presentation-sm.pdf Watch for the bait and switch when they pretend to be developing fuel efficient vehicles in response to government demands.

And wait to see how the games start when we get to CAFE mileage standards. We already have our national laboratory, Argonne, willing to fake the calculation of electric "miles per gallon equivalent" by pretending the heat needed to produce electricity is the same as the heat that can be produced with that electricity. Maybe someone with this level of ignorance could be allowed to pass out of high school, but they certainly should not have passed freshman physics in college. But Argonne and even SAE fails on this!! The published SAE standard on equivalent mileage of electric vehicles carries forward this error as well.

Not only do they promulgate erroneous calculation methodology, Argonne seems to be biased in promoting plug-in vehicles. To see this bias look at http://www.miastrada.com/references for the Argonne paper on testing the Hymotion Prius where they accidentally let out that the production Prius engine efficiency for UDDS cycle driving is 38% but the plug-in modification degrades it down to 33%.

While having some plug-in Prius cars operating will not be particularly harmful, in the end we will have continued production of large, inefficient vehicles, and a public believing that something significant was accomplished. For global warming mitigation, that will be a disaster because it will be the ruination of any future efforts that could have real merit.

Discussions of these issues are urgently needed.

I am one of the many MidWest drivers who would be driving an RAV4 EV now, had I known about their availability for sale in the early 2000's. Not only were they unavailable for lease in the MidWest, they were not even advertised! And that goes for all of the electric cars available beginning in 1997-98: auto manufacturers directed their ads only to CA and AZ and to some extent FL. Instead, I am driving a 2008 Ford Escape Hybrid, the best blend of the room of a mini-SUV, PHEV technology and nationwide availability. But even today this vehicle is barely advertised. These ads appear only on-line and never on TV or in newspapers. Lack of advertising may change now, with the introduction of the Ford Fusion HEV. But we are still a long way away from the introduction of Ford's PHEV version of the Escape Hybrid. And a fully electric version of the FEH is not even on the drawing boards. Yes, pressure from consumers will be necessary. But it will have to be on our representatives in Washington, to force auto makers to provide these vehicles for sale in sufficient numbers that they really can be purchased by mere mortals in the MidWest. The auto makers will never listen to each of us singly, partly because local dealerships are not tasked to forward our requests to upper management and partly because these manufacturers have no need to listen to us, even if we contact them directly. Compounding our difficulty in getting the cars we want in the near term is the tremendous backlog of compact domestic vehicles presently on dealers' lots, produced after the Summer 2008 Gas Price Spike but unsold after the collapse of this spike. Without government mandates to produce PHEV's or BEV's, auto makers won't do it on their own. Paul Rybski, Whitewater, Wisconsin

Indeed, I have been commuting to work on my eGo electric scooter for 6 years now here in Reno. That's approximately 220 days per year, even in the winter when there's a bit of snow and ice on the ground. Not everyone needs to drive plug-in cars! Consider an eGo -- the "Cadillac" of electric scooters. Wear lots of layers, nice warm gloves, keep your neck and wrists covered, and you're all set -- even in freezing temps! No need to pay for parking permits, nor feed parking meters, and not nearly as much wear and tear on our roads! And no need for air conditioning in the summer time! Go, pluggeeeeees!!

Great Video Sherry! I just bought an electric scooter, and fininshed my first week of full electric commuting. It feels great to save money and help save the planet at the same time. Oh, and it's really fun too!

Both electric vehicles and renewables like solar electricty have been proven to work for years. I drive a RAV4 EV as well. This is yesterday's technology. We can embrace it today and move to sustainability.

I wish the car companies would sell me an electric vehicle! I hate using gas, because it means polluting my air and supporting foreign oil industries.

Great video!

I wish the car companies would sell me an electric vehicle! I hate using gas, because it means polluting my air and supporting foreign oil industries.

Great video!

Electric vehicles are a major solution to three of our most vexing problems: environmental degradation, economic instability and national security. Running EVs on domestically produced solar and wind energy cleans out air and water, keeps much needed money in our country and lessens the need to fight wars over oil. Sherry's video depicts a perfect solution to these problems.

My story is almost exactly the same as Sherry's! We all can do this! I have driven 88,000 emission- and petroleum-free miles for seven years in my RAV4EV, powered by the electricity generated by the sun from my rooftop solar panels. Sherry is right! This works, and many millions of Americans could have been doing this, too, had the auto makers not stopped and de-railed their development of these brilliant cars. Messages like Sherry's and mine need to get out there so that the American people know that we can do this; we've done this; some of us are still doing it!

Person by person, family by family, we can all make a difference!