Study Says EV Vehicles Can Pollute So Much That They Need To Be Taxed Rather Than Subsidized

The idea that gasoline cars might cause less environmental harm than electric vehicles seems impossibly backwards. But consider the following thought experiment before you dismiss it out of hand.

A view from the tailpipe gives EVs a clear edge: no emissions, no pollution, no problem. Shift the view to that of a smokestack, though, and we get a much different picture. The EV that caused no environmental damage on the road during the day still needs to be charged at night. This requires a great deal of electricity generated by a power plant somewhere, and if that power plant runs on coal, it’s not hard to imagine it spewing more emissions from a smokestack than a comparable gas car coughed up from a tailpipe.

So the truth of the matter hinges on perspective—and, it turns out, geography. That’s the sobering lesson from an incredibly sophisticated new working study by a group of economists. Using a fine-grained, county-level measure of U.S. vehicle emissions traced to tailpipes and electricity grids, the researchers mapped where gas cars and EVs cause more respective pollution. In some places electrics do so much relative harm that instead of being subsidized, as is currently the case, they should actually be taxed.

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atc98092 - 7/2/2015 12:23:01 PM

-2 Boost

And that study was funded by people who are against EVs. Not sure I trust the results. That said, the nation does need to move to cleaner electricity production. Coal at its best needs a lot of emission control, and most plants have little to none.

MDarringer - 7/2/2015 2:42:26 PM

+2 Boost

Would you trust studies funded by Liberal greenies?

atc98092 - 7/2/2015 9:40:27 PM

+1 Boost

Nope, I don't trust either side...

800over - 7/3/2015 10:52:22 AM

+1 Boost

What the article doesn't take into account is that ev's have absolutely no pull on the grid. They make no difference currently. The coal plants have a surplus of energy and are not ramped up an down based on demand..they make the electricity regardless of demand. Only on the hottest days do they approach capacity. IE the pollution created by the plants is created wether or not the evs are running. EV cars do not create MORE pollution from the grid. The coal plant is running anyway.

Sciros - 7/2/2015 1:16:12 PM

+1 Boost

This looks like a spin against EVs. Really, if you are using electricity from your local grid, for your EV or not, and that electricity comes from coal power plants, then you have to understand that your power use contributes to more pollution than that of folks whose electricity comes from more eco-friendly power sources.

Maybe they should tax my computer since that asshole is on 24/7 and sucking up a lot of juice, right?

Or maybe we should just work on moving away from as many coal power plants as we currently rely on.

Also if you're going to compare power grids vs tailpipe emissions, then focusing on just the car USING the gas doesn't give you the whole picture does it? What about the tanker trucks delivering the gas to gas stations? What about the power grid usage to keep those gas stations operational? What about the construction of the tanker trucks and the power grid usage to service them and keep them operational? There are many pieces to this puzzle and as far as I can tell the only conclusion that really makes sense is, clean up your energy as much as you can the way the West half of our country has and then you don't have to play bullshit games about what causes more pollution.

MDarringer - 7/2/2015 2:41:48 PM

+4 Boost

This is the Liberals' "inconvenient" truth.

CarCrazedinCali - 7/3/2015 1:45:38 PM

+1 Boost

no, just the truth about dirty coal and other power plants

jeffgall - 7/2/2015 3:48:56 PM

+3 Boost

And this does not even touch on the added energy needed to manufacture the batteries.

800over - 7/3/2015 10:49:42 AM

+1 Boost

The article itself (if you bothered to read it) specifically states that the total cycle of building the car (AND drilling for oil) is not taken into account. But that if they were the EV's would have a total life cycle that pollutes less.

hensta - 7/3/2015 12:53:20 AM

+3 Boost

Compare the environmental toxicity of one BP Gulf Coast oil spill plus one Exxon Valdez. You can make a lot of batteries and power a few million electric cars for decades before we total that amount of damage.

vdiv - 7/3/2015 2:17:48 AM

+1 Boost

Don't forget the oil train disasters and the pipelines that have leaked all across.

800over - 7/3/2015 10:54:07 AM

0 Boost

Fracking?

CarCrazedinCali - 7/3/2015 1:43:48 PM

+1 Boost

not new news, let's clean up the power grid, simple