One of the things that I realized during the #Snowtober power outage is that it's a damned good thing we don't have a plug-in electric car.
It's one thing to run a handful of appliances off of a small generator, and use candles and batteries, and open the garage door by hand. But I dare say you can't recharge an electric car with a little Subaru generator. So then what? Huh? Stuck until the power company sees fit to restore you to the grid.
My husband's always railing that electric cars are the wrong tree to be barking up, that it's just shifting the power generation (and attendant pollution) to a single source. He's all in favor of hydrogen fuel cells.
Me, I like the idea of running a car on chicken shit.
What about you?
I'm still counting on my bicycle in case the skies actually fall. I can't eat chicken shit, though.
ReplyDeletepersonally I look forward to better solar panel options for people who rent apts. in cities. There are better options now than 10 years ago, because 10 years ago there were none. I know, because I was looking. I wanted to install a solar panel as a window box and see how much I could gather for my kitchen appliances.
ReplyDeleteI want a solar mobile, but only if it's a hovercraft.
we looked at the VOLT in our recent car shopping, which CAN run off of gas when the charge is gone, and is still more fuel efficient. But I think you (or rather, your husband) have an interesting point about shifting the power generation to a single source. And as I know our local electricity comes from the giant pile of coal i drive past on a regular basis, I can't honestly say it's any cleaner. (We didn't go with the VOLT, but did go with a very fuel efficient subcompact, something I NEVER thought we'd be able to do with a 6'5" husband)
ReplyDeleteI'm in favor of horses, myself.
ReplyDeleteI've read about people converting used grease from restaurants to bio diesel. Can't imagine living with the smell of french fries as a drive!
ReplyDeleteI never thought about the charging up issue in a snowstorm!
ReplyDeleteI like walking.
ReplyDeletePainted Maypole, I'm with you: EVs _are_ powered largely by coal and natural gas (unless you have your own watermill-driven turbine and plug into that - solves the snowstorm issue, too!).
ReplyDeleteBut EVs do have a decent carbon footprint, although not nearly as stellar as the misleading sticker would have you believe.
I did the math for an EV and found a few surprises.