1. EVs are much better for the climate than gasoline cars.
It’s not even close. Over its lifetime, the average new electric vehicle emits about half the greenhouse gas emissions of an equivalent vehicle using gasoline or diesel. This calculation by the Union of Concerned Scientists compares the total emissions from gasoline and electric vehicles.
Even if you hooked up your EV to the dirtiest power grid in the US, it would still produce less global warming pollution than a gasoline-powered car.
There are several reasons why EVs are emerging so early. Electric motors use energy much more efficiently than internal combustion engine motors, which waste a lot of energy through friction. Electric motors can convert up to 85% of the energy they burn into motion, while with internal combustion engines it is less than 40%.
But there are also more obvious reasons. With an electric car, there is no need to fill up the tank with gasoline and keep it burning. EVs need to be charged, and some of that electricity can be generated by burning fossil fuels. But the U.S. power grid is increasingly powered by clean energy.
Here at Earthjustice, we are a major force behind this country’s transition to clean power. As the world’s largest nonprofit environmental law firm, we have used the power of the law to force the retirement of more than 150 coal-fired power plants. We’re also working with local and federal regulators to pave the way for more renewable electricity.
2. EVs require fewer natural resources.
Extracting minerals to make batteries and drilling for oil to fill gas tanks both have serious impacts on the environment, but the scale of the impact is very different. There are many ways to compare the material resource requirements of electric and internal combustion vehicles. One way he thinks about it is the lifelong, raw consumption of material from the earth. Calculations by the European Transport and Environment Federation show that the lifetime fuel consumption of a conventional car would require a tower of oil barrels as tall as a 25-storey building. Meanwhile, the metal needed to make an EV battery is about the size of a microwave oven.
This graph highlights the advantage of electric vehicles, which use material resources only once, compared to conventional cars, which require the continuous extraction of more oil to fuel the vehicle. This is because drilling for electric cars typically occurs only once, whereas drilling for oil to fuel internal combustion cars continues for the life of the car.
Another way to compare is to compare the amount of energy required by both types of vehicles over their lifecycle. Battery electric cars use 58% less energy than gasoline cars.
Although switching to electric cars will encourage new mining and some of the associated negative environmental impacts, the metals in electric car batteries can be recycled. Once the gasoline in the tank is burned, it cannot be recycled. We end up breathing in the resulting pollutants and having to buy the next tank of gas again and again.
Earthjustice has been working in the halls of federal government to reform outdated mining laws and establish a circular economy framework around electric vehicle batteries.
3. Electric vehicles alone are not a complete solution to climate change. We also need to think about expanding public transportation and electrification.
Electric vehicles are a significant improvement over the millions of internal combustion engine vehicles currently on the road. But one of the major solutions to climate change isn’t about cars. To ensure people have access to public transport, bicycles and other low-impact transport options, and to electrify all buses, trains and ferries in our transport system. ,start up. To that end, the Biden administration recently announced the largest passenger rail investment since Amtrak’s creation, using funds from the Inflation Control Act to retrofit passenger rail lines across the country. We need bold federal action like this to make public transportation affordable and accessible to everyone.
Earthjustice has focused much of our advocacy on the electrification of California’s public bus system, which has the potential to cause interstate climate change. We have also successfully fought for additional federal funding for electric school buses and mail trucks. And we have pushed for regulations to electrify other types of highly polluting vehicles, such as long-haul trucking, port vehicles, and garbage trucks.
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