Co powered cars....gives new meaning to "rolling coal", that and all the areas destroyed for battery production...
You don't think you're being just a little over the top?
You can do this yourself, at
http://tinyurl.com/zwhvvfr. Use the filter button to select state. New Hampshire 2015:
coal 4.6%
nuke 47%
nat gas 30%
hydro 7%
biomass, oil, wind, solar make up an irrelevant remainder.
"Coal Cars"?
The CO2 from that mix, in contrast:
At 3 miles per kwh,
Straight Coal = 2,000lb/MWh, or 2lbs/kwh, or 2lbs/3 miles = .66lb/mile
At 4.6% of NH's mix, .66lb(.046)=.03lb/mile
Add natural gas, at 1lb/kwh = 30%(.33)= .1lb/mile, add together -
.13lb/mile
20lbs/gallon, for petrol if we leave out exploration & production, the ~6kwh per gallon refining, and other stuff doing gas cars a favor. At 50 miles per gallon, you're still 20lb/50miles =
.40lb/mile CO2
If you want to dig further, Zippy, the Congressional Research Service adds back upstream CO2 to gasoline to get closer to 32-36lbs/gallon, almost doubling again a car's CO2 output. Its a bigger gain than the ~10% electric losses EIA keeps track of, across our electric grid.
https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42537.pdf (the link studies differences between light/sweet and heavy crude sources, like tar sands).
With the U.S. electric sector finishing its first year where coal dropped from half, to below a third of the national mix, it is getting really hard to indulge "coal cars". Because its so cheap, and EPA loves it, natural gas is taking over. Actually, that little NH exercise tells the story. More CO2 comes from natural gas, than coal, these days in the northeast. Time to shut off more nukes
