The Lion's Pride Volume 9 (January 2018) | Page 73

In the U.S. most of the country doesn’t benefit from wind, solar, or
hydroelectric generated power as we do in the Northwest. Power is
generated mainly by coal, which creates more carbon emissions than gas
powered vehicles. A study done in December 2014 by the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences found that EVs “actually make the
air dirtier, worsening global warming.” The Associated Press article
about the study noted:
People who own all-electric cars where coal generates the power
may think they are helping the environment. But a new study finds
their vehicles actually make the air dirtier, worsening global
warming. Ethanol isn't so green, either. “It's kind of hard to beat
gasoline” for public and environmental health, said study co-author
Julian Marshall, an engineering professor at the University of
Minnesota. “A lot of the technologies that we think of as being
clean ... are not better than gasoline.” The key is where the source
of the electricity [comes from for] all-electric cars. If it comes from
coal, the electric cars produce 3.6 times more soot and smog deaths
than gas, because of the pollution made in generating the
electricity…The study finds all-electric vehicles cause 86 percent
more deaths from air pollution than do cars powered by regular
gasoline. Coal produces 39 percent of the country's electricity,
according to the Department of Energy.