John Steck wrote:
Ok, am I the only one that sees this?
Plug-in only shifts us to more pollution and hazardous by-product creating
power generation... specifically coal and atomic.
That is incorrect for several reasons, mainly:
1. About a third of our electric power comes from clean sources such as
hydroelectricity, wind power and renewable biofuel. (I have often ranted
about how bad ethanol is. It should be noted that the direct use of biofuel
to generate electricity is far more efficient, and it often reduces pollution.)
2. Electric cars are two or three times more efficient than gasoline
ICE-only, and with a modern electric power generator they are more
efficient than hybrid cars.
3. Power plant pollution is easier to control because power plants produce
"point source" pollution, and they are the responsibility of one
corporation with one phone number. Automobiles which are spread out all of
the map and owned by millions of individuals.
Also it should be noted that despite the problems with uranium, many people
including me would much prefer to live next to uranium plant than a coal
burning plant. There is no question that the widespread use of uranium
fission would reduce the threat of global warming. Coal burning plants kill
at least 20,000 people in the US alone, whereas during the last 60 years
U.S. civilian fission plants have killed only a few thousand people, if you
count people killed by pollution from uranium mining. This pollution has
been greatly reduced.
Cleaner at the duplex outlet end but much much dirtier at the source.
Much cleaner at the source.
Hybrids are just baby steps into the future
(until the US consumer starts realizing the maintenance & repair costs to
keep those complex systems running outweigh the fuel savings).
The maintenance and repair costs for production line hybrid cars is not
significantly higher than for regular cars. I know this for a fact, because
as it happens, at Ed Storm's recommendation I recently purchased a Prius
hybrid. Before I did that, I asked both the dealer and my car insurance
agent about maintenance and repair costs. Toyota offers the same warranty
coverage for the Prius as for their other cars. For $2,000 they offer an
extended maintenance contract that covers virtually everything for 10 years
or 100,000 miles. Insurance companies charge only a little more for
accident coverage. If these cars cost far more to maintain and repair,
Toyota and Allstate would already be losing their shirts, since there are
hundreds of thousands of these cars in use worldwide.
I think Mr. Steck should fact check his statement little more carefully.
- Jed
