[ausev] Open Garage & CO2+Electricity Generation (was hi im a newbie)

[Mark Farver]

jefoy at mindspring.com wrote:
> The sad point is that even though it is easier to control centralized
> emissions (power plant), it isn't being done. There are several lignite
> fired power plants in Texas, operating without the benefit of modern
> emission control because they have been grandfathered in.

This is true, Texas has a pretty bad pollution problem.  I've read that is
Texas was a country, it would be in the top 10 most polluting countries.

Sadly, there is nothing I can do about those emissions.  Not much I can do
about the emissions from my gas car either, besides keeping up with the
maintenence, or buying a new car.

Unlike my gas car, I _can_ clean up the fuel running my electric car.  I
just purchase my power from a renewable energy provider, in my case Austin
Energy's Green Choice program.  The key thing to remember is that
electricity is the most flexible and easiest to transmit form of energy we
have commonly available.  My EV can run on any fuel that can be converted
to electricity, my gas car can only run on one or two.

Mark Kapner, a member of this group, and an Austin Energy employee, used
their internal documentation on power plant emissions and tranmission
losses and found that with Austin's current mix of power, EVs came out
ahead in terms of overall pollution.  Many other groups have done the same
study (the EPA had an excellent one in the late 90's), and the results
invariably find that even in the worst case situation of 100% coal fired
electricity EVs are anywhere from slighty to significantly better in terms
of overall pollution.

The other common refrain: "EV's just move the pollution somewhere else." 
This is certainly true, and that actually a good thing, cars are mostly
driven in cities where air quality is the worst and population at its
highest.  Power plants are generally found in less dense areas.

Even with the current pollution levels, if the government did decide to
clean up the air it takes more than 10 years to replace the majority of
cars on the road with newer, cleaner models... a power plant can be
refitted with better pollution controls in a much shorter time.  Less than
10% of cars on the road today produce more than 90% of vehicle emissions.

Mark Farver