[lbo-talk] The War on the Car

[Gar Lipow]

On 11/14/05, John Costello <joxn.costello at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 11/14/05, Michael Perelman <michael at ecst.csuchico.edu> wrote:
> > ivan illich once wrote [echoing Thoreau on Trains] that the average velocity of a car was
> > slower than walking when one took into account the time spent earning the money for the
> > car, caring for it, parking it ....
>
>
> There's a similar calculus involved in hybrid or battery-powered
> vehicles.  It may be true that there's no net pollution gain from
> battery-powered cars.

No. First  battery powered cars are a lot more efficient than gasoline
powered; at least I don't know any gasoline powered car that comes
close to the 200 mpg that a solaria selectric obtained. Secondly, no
IC or diesel car engine can  come close to the pollution control per
btu routinely installed in megawatt scale power plants. So electric
cars don't just shift pollution; they reduce it a  hell of a lot.