Posted by
BLOGASSAULT on Monday, November 09, 2009 6:14:15 PM
The Obama administration is proposing to spur production of electric cars with a "build one, get one free" offer: Build one "zero emission" battery-powered vehicle, and get to count it as up to two vehicles when figuring the average fuel efficiency of a new-vehicle fleet.
The details of federal fuel economy rules are what those of us who refused to take math and science classes in college will be forced to read in purgatory. But government and industry officials familiar with the proposal say it works something like this:
Say Green Motors Co. builds 200 cars that emit 300 grams of carbon dioxide a mile, and 50 all-electric cars that don't burn any petroleum to operate. Those electric cars would get a rating of 0 grams of carbon per mile, and the car maker could use a multiplier of 1.2 to 2 when counting them toward a fleet-wide average calculation. So, in the best case for the car maker, 50 electric vehicles becomes 100. And instead of averaging 300 grams per mile per vehicle, Green Motors' fleet averages 200 grams per mile per vehicle—even though the company did nothing to the bulk of its vehicles.
Well, I like incentives, and this is an incentive. There are several problems that will have to be overcome with this deal. First off, they will have to find buyers of electric cars. Second, they will have to build "recharging stations" to boost the battery on long trips. Third, how are states like California going to handle the increase in power generation; they already have rolling blackouts during the summer months. Nothing like coming out to your car in the morning only to find it is not charged yet. Fourth, they have already determined that there may
not be enough lithium on the planet to build as many electric cars as Obama wants on the road. And last but not least, once we start mining the entire planet looking for the lithium, how long before the eco-nutters get all bent out shape over that?