A canard regarding electric cars keeps appearing in the press and in social media, propagated by climate deniers and deflectors. Basically, it goes as follows: since electric cars use electricity and that electricity is generated from coal power plants which bellow CO2 into the atmosphere, electric car owners are fooling themselves into thinking they are saving the planet.
This is wrong on three counts.
First, as an electric car owner, I also subscribe to a clean power generator in addition to the solar panel generation we have installed. The electricity that goes into our Leaf is 100% renewable and has zero carbon emissions. Zero.
Secondly, the current mix of electricity generation in Pennsylvania, based on coal (39%), petroleum (<1%), natural gas (24%), and zero-carbon emitting nuclear, wind, and solar (37%), averages a CO2 emission less than half of coal alone. So, not selecting an energy provider in all likelihood means my 104 mpg-e Leaf generates only one-sixth the CO2 per mile than the highest mpg-rated gasoline powered car.
Finally, even if all of the electricity I used to power the Leaf was produced from coal-fired plants (and that doesn’t happen anymore) the car would still generate only one-third the CO2 per mile than the highest rated gasoline powered car.
Electric cars aren’t going to save the world, but transportation is responsible for more than a fourth of our CO2 emissions nationwide. This would be a good place to start.
Ira Beckerman, New Cumberland, Pa.
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March 11, 2021 at 11:45PM
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Electric cars do pollute . . . less | PennLive letters - pennlive.com
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