How Green Are Electric Cars? Depends on Where You Plug In

IT’S a lot like one of those math problems that gave you fits in sixth grade: a salesman leaves home in Denver and drives his electric car to a meeting in Boulder. At the same time, a physicist driving the same model electric car sets out from her loft in Los Angeles, heading to an appointment near Anaheim. For both, the traffic is light, and the cars consume an identical amount of battery power while traveling the same number of miles. Being purely electric, they emit zero tailpipe pollutants during their trips. The test question: are their carbon footprints also equal? The answer may be a surprise. According to a report that the Union of Concerned Scientists plans to release on Monday, there would be a considerable difference in the amount of greenhouse gases — primarily carbon dioxide — that result from charging the cars’ battery packs. By trapping heat, greenhouse gases contribute to climate change. The advocacy group’s report, titled “State of Charge: Electric Vehicles’ Global Warming Emissions and Fuel Cost Savings Across the United States,” uses the electric power requirements of the Nissan Leaf as a basis for comparison. The Leaf, on sale in the United States for more than a year and the most widely available electric model from a major automaker, sets a logical baseline.


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enthusiastx11 - 4/14/2012 3:16:45 PM

0 Boost

if you're in france where most electricity is produced by nuclear plants...electric cars are brilliantly green.

in the US where most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels like COAL...not at all. it's just hiding the burning of fossil fuels from the self-righteous buyers of the cars.

vdiv - 4/16/2012 11:53:42 AM

+1 Boost

This is incorrect, in January 2012 coal-sourced electric power for the US was 38% and falling. The largest source, yes, but hardly most of the electricity. Most of the electricity (62%) now comes from sources other than coal.

http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/

cdoke - 4/16/2012 2:11:55 PM

+1 Boost

vdiv,

Enthusiast said "fossil fuels like coal" which would include all fossil fuels and just provides coal as an example. Fossil fuels in the EIA report includes the categories: Coal, Petroleum Liquids, Petroleum Coke, Natural Gas, and Other gases (read subscript 3 in the excel file). Combined these account for 223,605 MWh of 340,743 total for January 2012 or 65.6%.

vdiv - 4/16/2012 6:03:05 PM

+1 Boost

Ok, you got me there. I'm just a self-righteous buyer of an electric car that does not want to breathe fossil fuels exhaust while sitting at the stop light.

atc98092 - 4/14/2012 3:46:15 PM

+1 Boost

That's why I like living in Washington State. Our power is almost entirely hydro or nuclear. I understand we have one coal plant in the state, and that is going off line before the end of the decade.