Are Electric Cars Really Green?

RisenPeople Photo

RisenPeople
4 years 63 Views
Category:
Description:
Are electric cars greener than conventional gasoline cars? If so, how much greener? What about the CO2 emissions produced during electric cars‘ production? And where does the electricity that powers electric cars come from? Environmental economist Bjorn Lomborg, director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, examines how environmentally friendly electric cars really are
Donate today to PragerU! http://lpragerucom/2ylo1Yt

Joining PragerU is free! Sign up now to get all our videos as soon as they‘re released http://pragerucom/signup

Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Thousands of sources and facts at your fingertips

iPhone: http://lpragerucom/2dlsnbG
Android: http://lpragerucom/2dlsS5e

Join Prager United to get new swag every quarter, exclusive early access to our videos, and an annual TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://lpragerucom/2c9n6ys

Join PragerU‘s text list to have these videos, free merchandise giveaways and breaking announcements sent directly to your phone! https://optinmobiniticom/prageru

Do you shop on Amazon? Click https://smileamazoncom and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be donated to PragerU Same great products Same low price Shopping made meaningful

VISIT PragerU! https://wwwpragerucom

FOLLOW us!
Facebook: https://wwwfacebookcom/prageru
Twitter: https://twittercom/prageru
Instagram: https://instagramcom/prageru/
PragerU is on Snapchat!

JOIN PragerFORCE!

For Students: http://lpragerucom/29SgPaX
JOIN our Educators Network! http://lpragerucom/2c8vsff

Script:

Do electric cars really help the environment? President Obama thinks so So does Leonardo DiCaprio And many others

The argument goes like this:

Regular cars run on gasoline, a fossil fuel that pumps CO2 straight out of the tailpipe and into the atmosphere Electric cars run on electricity They don’t burn any gasoline at all No gas; no CO2 In fact, electric cars are often advertised as creating “zero emissions” But do they really? Let’s take a closer look

First, there’s the energy needed to produce the car More than a third of the lifetime carbon-dioxide emissions from an electric car comes from the energy used make the car itself, especially the battery The mining of lithium, for instance, is not a green activity When an electric car rolls off the production line, it’s already been responsible for more than 25,000 pounds of carbon-dioxide emission The amount for making a conventional car: just 16,000 pounds

But that’s not the end of the CO2 emissions Because while it’s true that electric cars don’t run on gasoline, they do run on electricity, which, in the US is often produced by another fossil fuel -- coal As green venture capitalist Vinod Khosla likes to point out, Electric cars are coal-powered cars

The most popular electric car, the Nissan Leaf, over a 90,000-mile lifetime will emit 31 metric tons of CO2, based on emissions from its production, its electricity consumption at average US fuel mix and its ultimate scrapping

A comparable Mercedes CDI A160 over a similar lifetime will emit just 3 tons more across its production, diesel consumption and ultimate scrapping The results are similar for a top-line Tesla, the king of electric cars It emits about 44 tons, which is only 5 tons less than a similar Audi A7 Quattro

So throughout the full life of an electric car, it will emit just three to five tons less CO2 In Europe, on its European Trading System, it currently costs $7 to cut one ton of CO2 So the entire climate benefit of an electric car is about $35 Yet the US federal government essentially provides electric car buyers with a subsidy of up to $7,500

Paying $7,500 for something you could get for $35 is a very poor deal And that doesn’t include the billions more in federal and state grants, loans and tax write-offs that go directly to battery and electric-car makers

The other main benefit from electric cars is supposed to be lower pollution But remember Vinod Khosla’s observation Electric cars are coal-powered cars

Yes, it might be powered by coal, proponents will say, but unlike the regular car, coal plant emissions are far away from the city centers where most people live and where damage from air pollution is greatest However, new research in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that while gasoline cars pollute closer to home, coal-fired power actually pollutes more -- a lot more

For the complete script, visit https://wwwpragerucom/videos/are-electric-cars-really-green