> Dan McGrath says: > > "Electric cars still have to get their power from *somewhere* Right now, > that's nuclear and coal power. Adding another huge consumer of electricity > to our outdated grid would mean we have to build another power plant, and > all the greenies who want electric cars would have to go have a protest > march." > > Dan McGrath is sorta missing the point, I think, while most intelligent > folks with green leanings are able to get it. Driving an electric car instead > of > one powered by an internal combustion engine means that you are not driving > an incredibly wasteful and dirty power plant, one of hundreds of millions, > off > the road. These mobile power plants are incredibly inefficient > thermodynamically when compared to most stationary nuclear and fossil fuel > power plants. > And each mobile plant must be maintained in a safe and clean manner by the > folks owning and operating these planes, trains, trucks, busses and > automobiles....that stuff happens doesn't it......sure it does, and I'll get > that truck > of mine tuned tomorrow, or the next day maybe. And who is to say that > batteries for electric automobiles cannot be designed to quickly swap out for > charging photoelectrically? You'd only need the big power plants to > manufacture and > recycle the things then. > > McGrath is correct that demand for electric power will rise if we shift en > masse to electric vehicles requiring charging from the grid, but neglects to > add that demand for oil will also fall. He also misses the fact that it is > easier to monitor, maintain, and repair stationary power plants to operate as > cleanly as possible than to do so for hundreds of millions of mobile plants > on > the road; we have tried and failed to do the latter on numerous occasions for > reasons of local politics and economy. > > A shift away from conventional cars to electrics now makes it possible to > decommission old, dangerous, and dirty power plants as new technology becomes > available, whether that new technology is wind (or the other solar power > options of hydroelectric, photovoltaic, passive use, biomass, and numerous > others) > or less problematic use of nuclear fission/fusion and coal and other fossil > fuels. One has to wonder how big a concern destabilization of the Middle East > would have been years ago if we had made the shift earlier. > > Bill Kahn > Prospect Park > > > > >
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