Electric Cars Will Not Decrease Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Says Federal Study
Well, duh.
That electricity they will be using has to come from somewhere doesn’t it? In the end, it’s all still metered energy (i.e. generated at a central source, subject to be tracked, charged for and cut off as a sanction)
To do that, the report argues, the United States would have to switch from coal-burning plants to lower-emission sources to generate electricity such as nuclear power.
“If you are using coal fired power plants and half the country’s electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?” Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report and a specialist in energy issues told CNSNews.com.
The report found that the adoption of plug-in cars could result in benefits, including reduced petroleum consumption and dependency.
But it concedes that in regions of the country heavily reliant on coal for power generation, electric plug-in vehicles will not result in a decrease in green house gas emissions.
“Reduction in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy,” GAO reported.
“For plug-ins to reach their full potential, electricity would need to be generated from lower-emission fuels such as nuclear and renewable energy rather than the fossil fuels—coal and natural gas—used most often to generate electricity today.”
In an attempt to encourage the development and manufacturing of “plug-in” electric vehicles, the government has allocated $300 million from the economic stimulus funding to the General Services Administration (GSA) to acquire fuel-efficient vehicles. These funds must be spent by 2011.
The GAO report pointed out that the stimulus law also establishes a tax credit for consumers for the purchase of plug-in cars—up to $2,500 for two-wheeled, three-wheeled, and low-speed plug-in cars.
But the report cites results from a study showing that “if plug-in hybrids reached 56 percent of the cars on the road by 2030, they would require an increased electricity production, much of which would likely come from additional coal plants.”
