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Environmental Concerns Related To Electric Vehicles

Global Climate Change and Electric Cars Editorial by Bill Drinkwater, Director, EVMaine.org Electric cars are no longer a novelty. Battery-powered electric vehicles are the only practical zero emissions transportation technology available to the public today, and they can help mitigate the climate catastrophe that is rushing toward us. The United Nations says that we are facing more severe floods, droughts, storms, forest fires and sea level rise, plus out-of-control population and disease migrations -- if we don’t act NOW! We must quickly reduce the billions of tons of pollutants being spewed into our (only six miles thick) atmosphere, or its over, Charley! We all share individual responsibility to help clean up the atmosphere and our local environment as much as possible because the recalcitrant Bush/Cheney Administration is not taking any responsibily in this critical fight to deal with the Greatest Global Emergency in Human History. Forget about intermediate technologies like hybrid vehicles. They are all just overpriced, overly-complex, gasoline-powered, electric-assisted vehicles that still pollute. Zero emissions low speed battery electric vehicles are available in the U.S. right now. They can be an excellent second family car for running errands and short trips for only a penny or two of electricity per mile, and with far less ongoing maintenance costs than any gasoline-powered car. In 2008, full-size, highway capable electric-powered family sedans are scheduled to finally become available in the American automotive market. None of them will come from U.S. automakers because Detroit still insists on gouging the American public with overstuffed, expensive SUVs and huge pickup trucks that wastefully gobble costly gasoline and other carbon-based fuels, all of which - you guessed it - treat the atmosphere that we breathe like it was an open sewer. You also have other options. For instance, you can have a regular gasoline-powered vehicle converted to battery electric power, or if you’re handy with a few basic tools you can do it yourself. Or you can assemble your own electric car from a kit, or you can even choose to build an electric vehicle from scratch. Its easier than it sounds. I know, because I’m building one right now! Take personal action now, drive an electric vehicle and never have to buy expensive gasoline, or any other polluting liquid fuels again. Help prevent Runaway Global Climate Change chaos and the end of human civilization, as we know it.  Some Recent Headlines That Should Concern You U.N. CLIMATE CHIEF SAYS SCIENCE CLEAR, MOVE ON “The science on climate change is indisputable so the world must now act to limit greenhouse gas emissions or face "abrupt and irreversible" change, the head of  the Nobel prize-winning U.N. climate panel said on Sunday. Click Here ARTIC SUMMERS ICE FREE BY 2013 The world’s air conditioner is very rapidly disappearing. Click Here RECORD ICE MELT SEEN ON GREENLAND IN 2007 "The amount of ice lost by Greenland over the last year is the equivalent of two times all the ice in the Alps, or a layer of water more than one-half mile deep covering Washington, D.C.," Click Here BILLIONS FACE CLIMATE CHANGE RISK Including shortages of food and water, and increased flood danger Click Here “TROPICS EXPAND” AS WORLD WARMS Endangering the global food supply Click Here UNEXPECTED GROWTH IN CO2 FOUND Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere have risen 35% faster than expected since 2000, says this study. Click Here EXTREME DOWNPOURS AND SNOWSTORMS UP 43 PERCENT IN MAINE “Scientists expect that, as global warming intensifies, longer periods of relative dryness will mark the periods between extreme rainstorms, increasing the risk of drought.” Click Here And if you still aren’t convinced, read this excellent overview by National Geographic WHAT IS GLOBAL WARMING? Click Here And if you still think electric cars are impractical you should SEE THE MOVIE, “WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?” To see the movie trailer Click Here Copyright © 2008 William Drinkwater All rights reserved, except for the following: Permission is hereby granted to reprint this editorial in any media as long as the following credit is included:  Editorial by William Drinkwater, Director of www.evmaine.org Send us your feedback - What do you think about this section? webmaster@evmaine.org

TRANSPORTATION EXPERTS ISSUE WARMING WARNING

Road, bridge planners must ‘acknowledge and confront the challenges’

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Various Zero Emissions Vehicles and Their Viability

Editorial by Bill Drinkwater

Introduction

Of possible solutions only hydrogen-powered, battery-powered electric, flywheel-powered or air-powered vehicles will produce zero harmful emissions while in use. Let’s look at each of these future vehicles more closely, plus those ubiquitous gasoline-powered hybrids.

 

Hydrogen-Powered Cars

Hydrogen powered vehicles are simply electric cars that are powered by a hydrogen battery that only emits water and oxyen from the car exhaust. However, hydrogen power for vehicles has so many major technical hurdles to overcome, plus massive investment for infrastructure of hydrogen production facilities, special pipelines and thousands of filling stations needing to be built that it won’t be ready for widespread use, most experts agree, for 20 to 50 more years. By the way, hydrogen currently costs about $3 per gallon.

 

Air-Powered Cars

Air-powered vehicles are currently being developed in Germany, France and Australia and probably other places as well. They hold excellent promise, but they must have much further development and then be mass produced requiring massive investments before they can become commonplace. They also require a very strong air compressor to ‘fuel’ them. But like battery-electric cars they are very quiet in operation and pollution-free.

 

Battery-Electric Cars

Many zero-emissions battery-powered electric cars are available today in the form of Low Speed Vehicles for local driving and for running errands. Also very expensive, high-performance electric-powered sports cars are also on the American market. Within about a year full-size electric family sedans should also be on the market here.

Two factors will soon bring many more electric cars onto the American market, apparently mostly from overseas manufacturers.

1. Mass production of new high tech’ batteries that have already been developed will double or triple today’s limited range of most electric vehicles, thereby making them just as functional as any other electric vehicle.

2. Massive investments in the facilites for mass production of highway-capable electric vehicles will be needed. Detroit could build them now, as evidenced by the erstwhile and highly capable GM 2003 EV-1, but refuses to, once again steadfastly denying the American auto industry a new wave of profits. Iinstead Ford and GM are standing aside waiting for foreign companies to once again eclipse them. (The planned Chevy Volt, which includes a powerful gasoline-run generator, appears to be getting much negative press from its own corporation, even though the American public has embraced the idea.) 

The (American) Tesla Motor Company broke ground on an exclusively electric auto production factory to initially employ 400 workers in April 2007 in Albequerque, New Mexico. In another year or two they plan to market the Whitehorse, a four door electric family sedan for highway travel.

Other highway-capable electrics abound: The Javlon sedan is scheduled for introduction in late 2007 or early 2008. The Think electric car from Norway is ready for prime time now, but they currently don’t produce enough of them to export to the US.

 

Flywheel-Powered Cars

There has been some experimentation with flywheel-powered vehicles over the past few years. A heavy flywheel is spun at very high speed in a vehicle in a station, and then the vehicle proceeds on its way, sapping power from that stored in the spinning flywheel to propel itself and its load.

Some fantarstic claims have been made about these vehicles, but it remains to be seen if they will ever be feasable. So far, this technology has been tried in some city buses, which can contain a very large and heavy flywheel beneath the passenger area.

Hybrid Gasoline-Electric Cars

Today’s gasoline/electric hybrid vehicles are a good transitional technology for Americans today because they are just about the only reduced gas mileage cars on the American Market today. Unfortunately, most Americans refuse to drive high mileage subcompact cars, like many people in Europe do because Americans have been brainwashed, spoiled and hoodwinked into driving their huge, expensive gas hog SUVs. Hybrids are a gasoline-powered vehicle with only an electric assist motor, and they still produce the same 19 pounds of pollutants for every gallon of gasoline that goes through their tank, they just go a little bit farther on that tankful of polluting gasoline.

Plug-in hybrids will be an improvement over today’s hybrids, offering even better gasoline mileage, but they still pollute the air when their gasoline engines are running. So plug-in hybrids will still keep us scrambling and warmongering for more of the world’s unstable and limited overseas supplies of oil. In addition, they are extremely complex, having two propulsion systems, so ongoing maintenance costs should be an ongoing concern for all hybrid owners.

 

In Conclusion

Hybrids are a good transitional technology for now to reduce gasoline consumption, but widespread hydrogen propulsion is only a future dream because many technological and infrastructure problems first must be addressed.

However, current battery-powered electric vehicles and possible future air-powered vehicles should be preferred in the mix of vehicles on our future highways if we really want to reduce pollution, reduce vehicle maintenance costs and mitigate the increasingly hostile weather and Climate Change that are occurring because of Global Warming.

"Electric fuel vehicles have the largest potential to reduce climate change emissions and petroleum dependency relative to any other alternative fuel vehicle under consideration."

This is a quote from CARB, the California Air Resources Board

www.thecarconnection.com

“We should set, as a strategic goal, the phasing out of the internal combustion engine...”

- Al Gore

“The Car You Drive: Your Most Important Personal Climate Decision.” *

*from The Union of Concerned Scientists

Click below for more info from this reputable source

www.ucsusa.org

DRIVE ON CLEAN ELECTRONS

Because all carbon-based fuels including; gasoline, diesel fuel, ethanol and bio-diesel pollute the air we have to breathe, and contribute to Catastrophic Global Climate Change.

Our Report on The Chewonki Sustainable Energy Conference 2007

People concerned about the planet

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Our Report on The Midcoast Sustainable Energy Expo 2007

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Mother Nature is Angry, Let’s Go Electric

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