The group “They Might Be Giants” has a children’s song called Electric Car:
Electric car on roads so dark
To change the end rewrite the start
Electric car so good, so far
Electric car on verdant green
Invent a turn invent a dream
Electric car the new machine
Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!
Electric car beside the tree
Will past the dock will past the sea
Electric car roll silently
Electric car on roads so dark
To change the end rewrite the start
Electric car so good so far
Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!
(No diesel, steam, or gasoline)
Let's take a ride in an electric car
Happiness resides in an electric car
You can even drive an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!
Let's take a ride in an electric car
To the west side in an electric car
How can you deny an electric car
Won't you take a ride with me
Come on and take a ride with me!!
While the promise of the electric car is easy to proclaim in song, delivering it in reality is not quite so simple. And as Bjorn Lomborg notes in today’s WSJ, when it comes to carbon emissions Green Cars Have a Dirty Little Secret:
If a typical electric car is driven 50,000 miles over its lifetime, the huge initial emissions from its manufacture means the car will actually have put more carbon-dioxide in the atmosphere than a similar-size gasoline-powered car driven the same number of miles. Similarly, if the energy used to recharge the electric car comes mostly from coal-fired power plants, it will be responsible for the emission of almost 15 ounces of carbon-dioxide for every one of the 50,000 miles it is driven—three ounces more than a similar gas-powered car.
Even if the electric car is driven for 90,000 miles and the owner stays away from coal-powered electricity, the car will cause just 24% less carbon-dioxide emission than its gas-powered cousin. This is a far cry from "zero emissions." Over its entire lifetime, the electric car will be responsible for 8.7 tons of carbon dioxide less than the average conventional car.
Those 8.7 tons may sound like a considerable amount, but it's not. The current best estimate of the global warming damage of an extra ton of carbon-dioxide is about $5. This means an optimistic assessment of the avoided carbon-dioxide associated with an electric car will allow the owner to spare the world about $44 in climate damage. On the European emissions market, credit for 8.7 tons of carbon-dioxide costs $48.
Yet the U.S. federal government essentially subsidizes electric-car buyers with up to $7,500. In addition, more than $5.5 billion in federal grants and loans go directly to battery and electric-car manufacturers like California-based Fisker Automotive and Tesla Motors. This is a very poor deal for taxpayers.
Given those facts, perhaps They Might Be Giants want to revise their lyrics in their paean to electric cars:
Won’t you get taken on a ride with me
Come and get taken on a ride with me!!
