http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113057918/electric-cars-lowering-greenhouse-gas-emissions-012914/
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program Doing Better Than Expected
January 29, 2014
Steven Siceloff – NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla.
Early figures from a pilot program at Kennedy Space Center show that
electric cars are reducing greenhouse gas emissions by a far greater
amount than expected, according to the program’s coordinator.
“The numbers are 10 times better than we thought we’d ever see,” said
Frank Kline with Kennedy’s Sustainability office. “No one’s ever done a
pilot where you get actual numbers. It’s always been estimates only.”
The results are more than academic since all federal agencies are under
a presidential order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. For NASA, the
goal is a 12.3 percent reduction by 2020. The executive order includes a
category that judges how much gas is emitted from sources that are not
controlled by the agency, including things ranging from the gases
produced by an airliner carrying a NASA employee on assignment to the
emissions from an employee’s car during the daily commute.
“The biggest one is federal employee commutes — that’s the easiest
target to go after,” Kline said. “If we want to stop you from producing
greenhouse gases, electric vehicles don’t produce any greenhouse gases.”
Even with electric cars, the reduction is not 100 percent because even
though an electric car itself produces no emissions, the power plant
that made the electricity produced greenhouse gases in the process.
“The average car puts out about a pound of carbon dioxide per mile,”
Kline said. “We’re reducing that by 3/5ths by letting you plug in at the
Kennedy Space Center.”
The program is working with 10 Kennedy workers who commute daily and
plug in their cars at the center’s charging stations. In return for
receiving free charging, each of the workers fills out a spreadsheet
each day documenting how many miles were driven and the road and traffic
conditions.
“What we’re trying to capture is fully electric plug-ins,” Kline said.
“The hybrid is not that different from gasoline-powered cars. It’s
better, but if you go electric, that’s really where you see the bang for
the buck. Fully electric is where we want to be.”
Calculations made from that information is showing a dramatic reduction
in the amount of emissions from the daily commute.
“The numbers are really insane,” Kline said. “The program’s first three
months only cost $148, and we eliminated over 15,000 pounds of carbon
dioxide into the atmosphere. Over a whole year, we’ll save over 60,000
pounds and that’s just with 10 drivers.”
Considering the center employs some 8,000 people, the potential to
significantly alter the amount of emissions from daily commutes by
installing even a modest network of outlets is compelling, Kline said,
and not very expensive.
“If you just put some infrastructure in and get people to plug in, you
can do more to reduce carbon dioxide and you won’t have to spend
multi-million dollars,” Kline said.
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