Coal generation has been declining very quickly, as it is replaced by natural gas (which is much cleaner).

Efficiency.

This idea has been disproven time and time again. What you’re saying is totally anecdotal and has no “facts” behind it.

I hear what you’re saying, but there’s two flawed/incomplete assumptions here:

Well, yes, but it’s a lot easier to mitigate pollution and environmental damage at the powerplant level than with individual cars.

No, no they don’t.

Ish.

Certified tree hugger here, we are fully aware of the issues:

While you ignore all of the badness associated with harvesting and refining combustible fuels.

The facts are still on the side of electrified transportation, even in a full-life cycle analysis. Environmental groups are not a monolith, and though they may not conform to your world view, many employ lots of thorough evaluation of net costs/impacts. In the US, the net benefits are a function of the regional power…

Without picking either side, let me just add that oil refineries use a bit of electricity themselves. You would have to remove all of that power out of your calculations. Similar to how you have to factor in the massive amounts of diesel fuel burned farming corn for ethanol. Clean energy indeed.

This old trope of “the long tailpipe” has been disproved many times over. As for overlooking facts, you can check them yourself courtesy of the DOE (http://www.afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/elect…). And with continued displacement of coal as our primary source of generation fuel, the environmental case for switching to EVs…

I was in agreement with those that said that something about their protest doesn’t quite make sense. I was going to write about that. In the end though, if this is how they feel it is best to express their feelings about the situation, good for them for doing it.

Real hippies make their own power off-grid with wind and solar. Problem solved!

I agree but there is one thing that compensates for this. An electric car can be just as bad as a gasoline/diesel car when you account for the source of the electricity. However, if clean energy is eventually sourced (wind, solar, whatever) all of the sudden the e-Car is completely clean, and the other is still…

Normally hippies are just annoying. These two have my support.

Nice to hear from you. It's been a while. I look forward to reading more from Tokyo!

In before “You guys are dumb. It’s Korean junk, there is no way it’s that good”

I’m guessing you work at a dealer?