To be honest, buying a new EV to replace a working gas car is almost as bad as just continuing to use it. Plus most US electricity is generated with fossil fuels. 22% of global emissions are from motor vehicles, but more than half that is commercial and would hardly be affected by consumer EVs.
I believe a far greater priority is to invest in rail structure, curbing both commercial and industrial use of road vehicles, which are both extremely inefficient methods of transport.
Plus most US electricity is generated with fossil fuels.
Most meaning how much? Also it depends on where you are. Some places (including California IIRC but don’t quote me on it) already generate enough renewable energy to meet 100% of their consumption and are using fossil fuels as backups. Also EVs are a lot more efficient than ICEs, so they still help even if the power source is fossil fuels.
most US electricity is generated with fossil fuels
This is incorrect. Over the whole country on average about 60% comes from fossil fuels, but it varies massively by location and even what time of day you are charging. Note that in that list on Wikipedia you can sort by CO2 / TWh, which is the most helpful way of looking at it since they have a narrow definition of “renewables”. There are other such lists of course…
So blanket statements like “well it’s mostly coming from fossil fuels anyway” are simply not helpful. If you live in Vermont, Washington, Oregon, New Hampshire, Idaho and quite a few others, you are not charging your EV with much in the way of fossil fuels, and probably then only at certain times of day.
A really good way to calculate this is to find CO2 emissions per Megawatt hour in your location by time of day. Not all generators provide this, but in California for example, there is a helpful dashboard: https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/emissions.aspx
There are also efforts like https://watttime.org/ which can cycle usage based on emissions. They actually provide APIs for this data.
To be honest, buying a new EV to replace a working gas car is almost as bad as just continuing to use it. Plus most US electricity is generated with fossil fuels. 22% of global emissions are from motor vehicles, but more than half that is commercial and would hardly be affected by consumer EVs.
I believe a far greater priority is to invest in rail structure, curbing both commercial and industrial use of road vehicles, which are both extremely inefficient methods of transport.
Most meaning how much? Also it depends on where you are. Some places (including California IIRC but don’t quote me on it) already generate enough renewable energy to meet 100% of their consumption and are using fossil fuels as backups. Also EVs are a lot more efficient than ICEs, so they still help even if the power source is fossil fuels.
This is incorrect. Over the whole country on average about 60% comes from fossil fuels, but it varies massively by location and even what time of day you are charging. Note that in that list on Wikipedia you can sort by CO2 / TWh, which is the most helpful way of looking at it since they have a narrow definition of “renewables”. There are other such lists of course…
So blanket statements like “well it’s mostly coming from fossil fuels anyway” are simply not helpful. If you live in Vermont, Washington, Oregon, New Hampshire, Idaho and quite a few others, you are not charging your EV with much in the way of fossil fuels, and probably then only at certain times of day.
A really good way to calculate this is to find CO2 emissions per Megawatt hour in your location by time of day. Not all generators provide this, but in California for example, there is a helpful dashboard: https://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/emissions.aspx
There are also efforts like https://watttime.org/ which can cycle usage based on emissions. They actually provide APIs for this data.