This summer my (Miro’s) husband and I are planning a road trip from DC to the Finger Lakes and out of curiosity, I was looking at ways to make our trip more sustainable. I stumbled upon this helpful and practical guide of how to prepare your car, home, and even luggage to limit the impact on the planet and it got me thinking about renting an electric car for the trip. That notion opened up an entire can of worms on the internet about whether or not electric cars are actually WORSE for the environment than internal combustion engines (due to the emissions that result from their production) and forced me to question what I thought I knew to be true. I figured if I was confused then others might be as well and I wanted to share this incredibly informative video comparing EVs, hybrids and gas cars from one of my favorite web series, PBS’s Hot Mess to help cut through the noise.
Why This Matters: Energy and green tech can be really confusing but what we have to remember at all costs is that the sooner we switch to emissions-free sources of energy generation the sooner all of the “energy saving” things we plug into the wall begin to live up to their intended purpose. Transportation took over last year as the biggest source of U.S. GHG emissions but if folks switch to EVs and our power plants are still running on fossil fuels then we’re failing to make progress. If you’re thinking of buying an EV but your utility is slow to bring more renewable energy into its energy mix, see if starting a solar co-op is feasible in your neighborhood (as these two teens did recently in a DC neighborhood).
June 11, 2019 » electric cars, electric vehicles, EVs, renewable energy, Solar
