On Tue, 20 Nov 2007 10:27:27 -0800 (PST), Denny
wrote:


There is another factor that hasn't been mentioned. There is no
tax in the electricity rate to cover highway maintenance or
construction. If electric vehicles really do become that popular,
then something equivalent to the 50 cents a gallon now charged on
gasoline will have to be applied to the electricity used by electric
vehicles. That would add something like 2 to 4 cents a mile to the
electric vehicle cost, to keep the state and federal highway funds
solvent.

ehhh heh heh, I see in the future the public treated like farmers are
with fuels. Where they have to pay a road tax on every KWH they use
from the power company then file for a refund for the KWH use din the
home and not for charging their car.... Should be a hoot to watch...
They'll probably do it like they do here with my shop. Put in separate
meters with a minimum charge. With graduated rates it's probably be
cheaper to pay the taxes rather than put the house into a higher rate
due to usage.

OTOH the researchers are saying that probably won't be a problem as we
don't have enough grid capacity even in off peak hours to charge up
much of an electric fleet. Besides they figure that the overall
pollution from electric cars would be as bad or even worse than our
present fleet. The general consensus is the electric car is not the
way to go unless you live in the SW where a bank of solar panels can
do the charging.

The electricity has to come from some where and about 2/3rds to 3/4
comes from coal fired plants. These plants put huge amounts of CO2,
Mercury, and Sulphur into the air along with lots of particulate
matter. That means the so called clean electric car would probably
cause far more pollution than what's on the road now.

Both Hydrogen and Electric cars which are touted as being so clean
only move the source of pollution from the vehicle to the power
generation plant. Hydrogen takes even more energy to produce so it is
even less efficient.

In the end they are saying the small hybrids are the best interim
solution until alternative, clean energy sources become available. IOW
conservation is by far the best all around route both short and long
term.

Even with real time metering and load control if something like 20%of
our fleet went electric we'd almost have to double the size of the
electric grid. We'd end up like China who plans on adding one new
power generation plant _per_week_ for the next 10 years (or is it 20?)
Roger (K8RI)