I was pleased to see how a number of you took up my challenge to consider whether the Tesla all-electric car is as pollution free as the salesperson suggested. No way, because all-electric cars must draw their energy from electric grids, with the charges for their batteries coming from more polluting sources than would be produced by combustion engine cars (especially ones with smaller engines). Indeed, researchers have found that in the United States whether all-electric cars careless polluting than combustion engine cars depends on where the cars are driven. Electric cars that draw their charges from coal-burning generation plants are more polluting (as a rule, so the study indicated); those that draw their charges from natural-gas generation plants . . . well, sometimes yes, other times, no!
by Richard McKenzie.
