I am reading through the Cap and Trade bill that now sits in the hands of our incredible elected officials in the Senate.
Well, I came across a section on electric vehicles that "will" reduce the carbon emissions when they are introduced. This is specific to plug in and charge electric vehicles and the states that elect to use them and manufacturers that choose to produce them.
I don't buy into this though. To charge these vehicles you have to use electricity which is produced from burning fossil fuels (coal). This isn't a solution, it is meant to make the user feel better because he is not directly contributing carbon dioxide to the air. But that really isn't my point. I really want to address something totally different in this post.
I recently purchased a truck that has the ability to run on ethanol. The first thing I did is start searching for gas stations where you could buy ethanol, and I am here to tell you that there aren't that many. So few in fact that the closest one to my house is about 20 miles away and then the next closest is 100 miles away. There is only a single gas station in Louisiana that has it, and most states are about the same. But the fact that it is hard to find or get isn't even my point, though it would be nice to be able to find it more readily available.
Think about the plants that you will be depriving of glorious carbon dioxide that they need to grow and produce oxygen. But that isn't even my point.
It comes down to this. Ethanol give you roughly 15% few miles per gallon than gasoline. The price per gallon is roughly 15% cheaper than gasoline. When the price of gas goes up, the price of ethanol goes up and it is always a 15% cheaper. I don't understand how this is the case because no one is using the stuff which is evident by the amount of gas stations where you can get it. What is happening is that the price is being fixed to a price of gasoline minus 15% because that is your reduction in gas mileage. And this brings me to my point. What do you think will happen to the price of electricity if all of a sudden people are using it to charge their vehicles? And that isn't just for the KW/hrs you use to charge your vehicle, but also for the usage of watching television, using your computer, etc.
Just thought I would point this out and see if anyone else had thought about it.