In a message dated 11/3/98 4:52:11 AM Pacific Standard Time,
BlueGolfer@aol.com writes:
<< It certainly would be an interesting trade study to compare the total
energy
and environmental impact of a gasoline powered car versus an electric powered
car.
>>
Electric cars sound fine in theory for warm, sunny climates like southern
California, but a lot of the rest of us get up and go home in the dark for
much of the year, headlights blazing, heater cranked up to keep warm,
windshield wipers and defroster fan working furiously to keep the screen
clear. Oh, and we gotta have the radio on. It doesn't sound like anyone's
come close yet to propelling the car a decent distance AND running all the
ancillaries on just electricity.
Plus, on the subject of electrical generation: What would happen if,
overnight, half the people in California suddenly switched to electric cars?
Cleaner air the next day in L.A.. Great! Then, the next night, everyone
arrives home from work and plugs in their cars for the overnight charge. Does
anyone seriously think that there is enough generating capacity to cover the
kind of peak demand from MILLIONS of cars plugged into the grid? Now we're
talking about having to build more power plants and, since all of the clean
hydroelectric capacity is used up, natural gas-fired turbines are the next
cheapest to build, with all the usual global warming implications attached.
Sounds like a great deal - if you own stock in a utility.
my 2 cents
Dick Sanders
Seattle
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