3 ms·

Just a note, it takes A LOT of energy (and electricity!) to refine oil into gasoline. In CA for instance, the power it takes to refine fuel could, almost, be us

by cowmix 5y ago

Just a note, it takes A LOT of energy (and electricity!) to refine oil into gasoline. In CA for instance, the power it takes to refine fuel could, almost, be used watt for watt to power EVs going the same distance. You can also add in the energy costs to extract, transport, store, etc fuel too (but EVs have a lot of that overhead too).

mywittyname 5y ago
Do you have a citation for this? Not that I don't believe you (it's actually a very plausible statement), but I have so many questions on the technical details here.
PheonixPharts 5y ago
You seem to be implying that increased EV usage will dramatically decrease the need for oil refinement. Do you have any evidence of this? In just the US, EV purchases have grown nearly exponentially over the past decade [0]. However total petroleum consumption in the US has slowly but steadily risen [1] during the same period (excluding, of course, the pandemic). Gasoline consumption has remained roughly flat. There's a common and understandable assumption that "more green technology usage means lower GHG emissions" but in reality there is little evidence to support this. Globally, green energy usage has only served to supplement energy demands. Since the industrial revolution we, as a species, have never reduced our usage of an energy source [3] Surprisingly we still burn as much wood as we did when every home was heated by wood burning. The only dips we ever see in GHG emissions are during periods of economic disruption, but that's a path people are very unwilling to even discuss so it's not worth bringing up. Point being, people dramatically over estimate the certainty that an increase in EVs will someone also mean a decrease in overall oil consumption. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States#/media/File:US_PEV_Sales_2010_by_PHEV_vs_BEV.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_t... 1. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WRPUPUS2&f=W https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W... 2. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitution?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitutio...

by cowmix 5y ago

mywittyname 5y ago

Do you have a citation for this? Not that I don't believe you (it's actually a very plausible statement), but I have so many questions on the technical details here.

PheonixPharts 5y ago

You seem to be implying that increased EV usage will dramatically decrease the need for oil refinement. Do you have any evidence of this? In just the US, EV purchases have grown nearly exponentially over the past decade [0]. However total petroleum consumption in the US has slowly but steadily risen [1] during the same period (excluding, of course, the pandemic). Gasoline consumption has remained roughly flat. There's a common and understandable assumption that "more green technology usage means lower GHG emissions" but in reality there is little evidence to support this. Globally, green energy usage has only served to supplement energy demands. Since the industrial revolution we, as a species, have never reduced our usage of an energy source [3] Surprisingly we still burn as much wood as we did when every home was heated by wood burning. The only dips we ever see in GHG emissions are during periods of economic disruption, but that's a path people are very unwilling to even discuss so it's not worth bringing up. Point being, people dramatically over estimate the certainty that an increase in EVs will someone also mean a decrease in overall oil consumption. 0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_the_United_States#/media/File:US_PEV_Sales_2010_by_PHEV_vs_BEV.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug-in_electric_vehicles_in_t... 1. https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=WRPUPUS2&f=W https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=W... 2. https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitution?country=~OWID_WRL https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/global-energy-substitutio...