The Real Clean From Driving Electric

Minnesota study challenges ‘coal car’ claims about electric vehicles

Frank Jossi, April 20, 2016 (Midwest Energy News)

“…[E]lectric vehicles emit 61 percent fewer greenhouse gases (GHGs) than gasoline-powered automobiles...[and an] electric vehicle contributes 29 tons of GHG emissions while a car using gasoline will release 75 tons over their respective lifetimes, based on 160,000 miles of travel…[Emissions go to near zero when electric car owners participate in renewable energy programs, according to new research from the Great Plains Institute. It contradicts research from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) that found EVs charged with coal-generated electricity are no cleaner than cars with internal combustion engines. GPI’s research]…Gasoline cars emit an average of 465 grams of greenhouse gases per mile in Minnesota, a total that includes energy consumed during the extraction and refining process. Electric vehicles emit only 183 grams of GHGs per mile, a figure based on Xcel Energy's 2015 fuel mix [and Minnesota’s gasoline is ‘significantly dirtier’ than the average for the country because most of what is refined in the state comes from the Alberta tar sands and the Bakken shale …[The NBER study] took into account tailpipe and smokestack emissions and did not include pollution caused by extraction, transportation and refining of fuels…” click here for more

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