27 Jun 2023 2:32 pm
I used to make the same argument against electric cars.Skans » 26 Jun 2023, 3:56 pm » wrote: ↑ Of course they do. All the energy that goes into the "battery" has to come from somewhere - i.e. burning some kind of fuel to make the electric turbine turn.
The car has no emissions, but a hundred miles away there is a smokestack billowing coal smoke into the air.
But like every other conservative idea I’ve ever supported in my entire life, I was wrong about that, too.
it was my fault. I should have stopped and thought about it more carefully. Any time you agree with a Fox News talking point, you’re certain to be wrong.
The first place I erred was the electric is about 60% efficient and the gas car 20% efficient.
Which means even if coal is burned to generate the juice, there’s much less fuel used, on the order of three times less fuel. And in actual practice the electric delivers about a five times cost advantage over gasoline, because the electrics are engineered for maximum range.
And then, I didn’t consider that like gas cars, the vast majority of electrics will be parked from evening until dawn in a garage or driveway. The electrics will be charged up mostly during off peak power generation times.
At night electricity gets cheap. The Natgas plants go offline, leaving nuclear, hydro, and wind to feed the grid.
Unlike most Dems I’m a global warning atheist (a skeptic has doubts) and I don’t care what the emissions of anything are.
But that’s a minority opinion and fewer emissions are desirable. I might be wrong, again.