Quote:
Originally Posted by David Kirk
My wife is a researcher and science writer for NASA and her work points out something interesting and surprising. Even the dirtiest coal plant is more efficient than an ICE car. Meaning that if one looks at how much pollution an ICE car makes per mile and compares it to an EV that is charged by a coal burning power plant the EV/coal plant emissions are about 30% lower than the ICE vehicle.
So the worst case scenario of 100% coal power is better than our each driving our own private power plants around in the form of an ICE car. That’s good news. Even better is that every state in the nation uses a blend of power sources and that there isn’t a single state in the nation that uses only coal to produce electricity. Our state of Montana is pretty dirty when it comes to power production and yet 51% of the power generated in the state of Montana comes from renewables (hydro and wind leading the way followed by solar). So even here in a coal state the electricity used to power an EV results in much lower emissions than an internal combustion car.
It’s good stuff that very few people know about. The myth that driving an EV powered by coal is as bad or worse than an ICE vehicle is just that - a myth.
dave
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DoE/EPA has a nifty tool that lets you compare EV vs ICE GHG emissions (including the GHG generated to produce the electricity to power the vehicle) based on your zip code. Check it out here:
https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/Find.do?action=bt2