4 ms·

"Electric cars get cleaner every year because of this. Gas cars will always burn gas their entire life." This might be true in the future but we aren't there y

"Electric cars get cleaner every year because of this. Gas cars will always burn gas their entire life." This might be true in the future but we aren't there yet unfortunately. This is due to the incorrect assumption that natural gas is a clean bridge fuel. Once you take into account the methane emissions/leaks from natural gas you end up with a fuel just as bad as coal and oil from a global warming perspective. This is due to methane being very dangerous greenhouse gas in the sort term (now - 100yr time period). This plus the emissions required to produce any consumer product like a car probably means for now electric cars not much better than a traditional gas car. The only way to make these cars truly emissions free is to remove ALL carbon based energy from the chain. That includes car and battery production, charging, maintenance, and disposal. Until you do that your just switching the source of emissions around. The climate system doesn't care if the greenhouse gas comes from a car or a power plant. The best thing we could do in the short term until we have a 100% green grid is to hold off on buying the car and walk/ride a bike :) http://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-new-chemistry/ http://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-n... http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL067987/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GL067987/abst...

toomuchtodo 11y ago
My math, extrapolating out current install velocity of utility/distributed solar, as well as utility scale wind, shows a complete replacement of fossil fuel generation in the US in 12-15 years (Congress finally did something right extended the production tax credit for 6 years for renewables). I agree natural gas isn't perfect, but we won't need it for very long.
- brooklyndavs 11y ago
  I wish I could share this outlook but I see a few things slowing the installation velocity of zero emission energy generation. These are a mix of technological and political. What we are seeing currently in the install velocity is probably the low hanging/small scale projects in politically favorable states (in the US anyway). On the technological side as projects get bigger they are running into issues. Take the large solar plant in California for example: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601071/one-of-the-worlds-largest-solar-facilities-is-in-trouble/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601071/one-of-the-worlds-... Naturally, these are typical issues that we see when scaling any new technology up for the first time. They will be resolved, but how soon? Secondly, and this is probably the bigger issue, without a Manhattan like project for zero emissions energy production the political drive to switch will be painfully slow. Remember how much MONEY there is in fossil fuels and these companies are not going to go silently into the night. There are large states where significant numbers of americans live (think Texas, Arizona, Florida) where the politicians won't even acknowledge global warming! (IE see who funds the campaigns). Homeowners in Oklahoma face a fee for using solar. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oklahoma-solar-surcharge-bill-becomes-law-17335 http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oklahoma-solar-surcharge-... Nevada got rid of net metering http://www.marketplace.org/2016/02/23/world/nevada-solar http://www.marketplace.org/2016/02/23/world/nevada-solar There was this collapse of the Cape Cod wind project last year... https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/01/30/what-really-toppled-cape-wind-plans-for-nantucket-sound/mGJnw0PbCdfzZHtITxq1aN/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/01/30/what-really-... Even though we NEED to be off fossil fuels for energy generation in 12-15 years I fear we won't be anywhere close. The best thing that can be done for the near term is limit consumption as much as possible until we are completely off ALL fossil fuels.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

My math, extrapolating out current install velocity of utility/distributed solar, as well as utility scale wind, shows a complete replacement of fossil fuel generation in the US in 12-15 years (Congress finally did something right extended the production tax credit for 6 years for renewables). I agree natural gas isn't perfect, but we won't need it for very long.

brooklyndavs 11y ago
I wish I could share this outlook but I see a few things slowing the installation velocity of zero emission energy generation. These are a mix of technological and political. What we are seeing currently in the install velocity is probably the low hanging/small scale projects in politically favorable states (in the US anyway). On the technological side as projects get bigger they are running into issues. Take the large solar plant in California for example: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601071/one-of-the-worlds-largest-solar-facilities-is-in-trouble/ https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601071/one-of-the-worlds-... Naturally, these are typical issues that we see when scaling any new technology up for the first time. They will be resolved, but how soon? Secondly, and this is probably the bigger issue, without a Manhattan like project for zero emissions energy production the political drive to switch will be painfully slow. Remember how much MONEY there is in fossil fuels and these companies are not going to go silently into the night. There are large states where significant numbers of americans live (think Texas, Arizona, Florida) where the politicians won't even acknowledge global warming! (IE see who funds the campaigns). Homeowners in Oklahoma face a fee for using solar. http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oklahoma-solar-surcharge-bill-becomes-law-17335 http://www.climatecentral.org/news/oklahoma-solar-surcharge-... Nevada got rid of net metering http://www.marketplace.org/2016/02/23/world/nevada-solar http://www.marketplace.org/2016/02/23/world/nevada-solar There was this collapse of the Cape Cod wind project last year... https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/01/30/what-really-toppled-cape-wind-plans-for-nantucket-sound/mGJnw0PbCdfzZHtITxq1aN/story.html https://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2015/01/30/what-really-... Even though we NEED to be off fossil fuels for energy generation in 12-15 years I fear we won't be anywhere close. The best thing that can be done for the near term is limit consumption as much as possible until we are completely off ALL fossil fuels.