Electric Cars may be worse for the enviornment than Gas guzzlers.

Should Metro Council repeal free parking for battery powered cars?

A new study out of England commissioned by the Low Carbon Vehicle Partnership, which is jointly funded by the British government and the car industry, has found that a mid-size electric car would produce 23.1 tons of CO2 over its lifetime, compared with 24 tons for a similar gas powered car. If one changes the mileage assumptions just a little, the gas guzzler is actually less polluting than the electric car. Since the electric car cannot go but about 90 miles on a charge, it may not be driven as much as a comparable gas-powered vehicle and if that is true the gas-powered vehicle is actually more environmentally friendly than the electric car. (read more)

Now, if one is only measuring tail-pipe emissions the electric car wins by a country mile, but if one considers the cost of producing the two vehicles then the gas powered car wins by a big margin. Nearly half the pollution from an electric car over the full life of the car comes before the vehicle has been driven a single mile. The reason for this is that the batteries to power the electric cars result in production of a massive amount of CO2. If one assumes the electric car must at some point have its batteries replaced then, the gas car wins again. Over time of course, the CO2 necessary to produce the batteries could come down, but for now one can not conclude that battery powered cars are any more environmentally friendly than than gas powered cars. 

I do not expect this to make a lot of difference to many environmentalist who are into symbolic acts that make themselves feel good. After all, many are still clinging to ethanol, which causes a large “dead” section in the Gulf or Mexico, produces almost no net carbon reduction, and causes higher food prices and starvation in third world countries.

Based on this new study, should the Metro Council not repeal the recently passed electric car free parking benefit? I did not like that enactment anyway. Anyone who can afford a new $32,000 car does not need to have their parking paid for by the rest of us including the unemployed and poor people. If we can now rationally conclude that battery powered cars are no more environmentally friendly than gas powered cars should poor people pay the parking fee for privileged  environmentalist so they can feel smug and self righteous?

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