As several have pointed out, this article fails to address renewable energy alternatives (grid or on-site). Even in the case of coal powered plants, most plug-ins will most likely be plugged in at night, when excess electricity is already generated anyhow -- i.e. the coal is being burned regardless (because it's too costly and inefficient to power down a plant temporarily on a daily basis). Right now, a considerable amount of that energy powers NOTHING, so by using it to recharge batteries, at least you're getting something useful for all the CO2 you're emitting. I've run across a number of discussions of this on-line - here's a TreeHugger take:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008/04/plug-in-hybrid-cars-co2-emissions-electricity-energy.php ej _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
