California governor pushes for 5 million zero-emission cars

[HeartachesNhangovers]

2. I can't let this go. There is no such thing as a

zero-emission car. A pure electric car includes significant emissions involved in the manufacturing: all of the production and transportation emissions involved in making the parts, putting them together and also associated with the labor and sales force that makes, markets and sells the car. In addition, if it gets its power from a power plant, that power plant takes fossil fuel (in CA it almost always natural gas) and burns that fuel to generate electricity at an efficiency that could be as low as 30% for an older plant. In other words, you need to burn 1 cubic foot of natural gas for every 0.3 cubic foot worth of actual electricity that is generated.

Is a zero-emission car actually less polluting overall than a conventional car? I don't know; that would be a complicated analysis involving every step of production, sales and operation. But I do know that "zero-emission" is a lie that doesn't even come close to reflecting reality.

The only zero-emission car is the one that doesn't exist.