WHERE THE EV CUTS EMISSIONS MOST

Electric Vehicles Are Cleaner, but Still Not a Magic Bullet

Paul Stenquist, Sept. 16, 2014 (NY Times)

“…[In 60 percent of the United States, electric vehicles are now responsible for fewer heat-trapping global warming emissions per mile than even the most efficient hybrids [according to the Union of Concerned Scientists]…[In 2012,] in an area where electric power was generated using a high proportion of coal — as it is in much of the nation’s midsection — an electric vehicle was no cleaner than a high-m.p.g. gasoline-engine subcompact…[In the last two years,] some utilities have added clean renewable sources of electricity to their mix and, more important, electric vehicles have become more efficient…[T]he average battery- powered electric vehicle sold over the past year uses 0.325 kilowatt-hour per mile, a 5 percent improvement…That means an electric vehicle operating within the Midwest electric power grid, which blankets several states in whole or in part, is now as clean as a gasoline-engine car achieving 43 miles per gallon…An electric vehicle in New York achieves the equivalent of 112 m.p.g…[I]n California the number is 95 m.p.g…Colorado, which relies heavily on coal, is once again at the bottom of the list, with an E.V. achieving the same emissions as a 34 m.p.g. gasoline-engine car…” click here for more

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