Electric and Hybrid Electric Vehicles are Needed Now!

As an American, I will address CO2 emissions and energy usage in the United States. Many Technologies can be implemented to reduce CO2 emissions. A quick look at transportation CO2 emissions in the USA, according to IEA data for 2007, over 30% of USA CO2 emissions come from the transportation industry. Global oil consumption is 80 million bbls/day. US oil consumption is 25% of that, 20 million bbls/day, with a lion’s share of that utilized in the transportation industry. In the transportation industry, internal combustion engines power the industry. Energy efficiency for an IC engine is 20%. This means that 80% of 2 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions in the USA is from wasted energy in the form of heat out the exhaust and through the radiator. With technology available today, electric vehicles can operate at near 90% efficiency. So, even if our vehicles were powered by electricity generated from burning un-sequestered coal, CO2 emissions would be reduced dramatically due to the high efficiency operation of an electric vehicle. There is a reason why the US auto industry failed. Now is a Good Time to repair that industry.