Originally Posted by
FlyJSH
Just where are we going to get all the electricity required to recharge all these "zero emission" vehicles? Currently (no pun intended) the US gets electricity from: (percentages are approximate)
Clean burning natural gas - 34%
A 500 year supply of coal - 30%
Evil, environment destroying nuclear - 20%
Snail Darter killing hydroelectric - 6%
Migratory bird killing wind -5%
And everything else - 4%
There are not many more places to put hydro dams, wind farm locations are becoming harder to find, and 'everything else' is tapped out too. So the question is, do we add more CO2 to the air or churn out more radioactive waste?
If one does the math for gasoline, the US would need to increase electricity production about 120% to replace auto fuel. And since every time energy is converted from one form to another efficiency is lost, that 120% is probably more like 150%.
Ahhhh, zero emissions!
Powerplant nuclear waste are dry pellets that can be reprocessed, however, there is way too much political red tape to even attempt affording it. The government would have to do it for free. But that's really the only solution there is for zero emissions; Going balls to the wall with nuclear. Eventually we will build those reactors when we have no choices left. The question is how much additional climate damage are we willing to do before we build them.
Renewables aren't real, they are a theory on paper that require humans to invent science fiction technology.