So when do we get a cartoon about "Fast Freddy" leaving the City for the rareified air of Denver?

Posted by Tierrasanta Tom Tom | reply to this comment
July 6, 2008 10:43 pm

These are delightful! They should appear in print.

Posted by Alice G. | reply to this comment
July 7, 2008 5:58 pm

This is disingenuous. If you track down the power source for electric vehicles, yes, it is certainly a power plant. HOWEVER, keep in mind that it is much easier to regulate and control emissions at power plants that the lobby influenced car industry.

Posted by Brandon F | reply to this comment
July 10, 2008 6:49 pm

The cartoon is not so much disingenuous, as is just plain uninformed and wrong. Coal currently makes up only about 20 percent of California electric power generation, so the cartoon is just plain wrong. On top of that, it is uninformed in that using dirty coal for generating energy for electric cars is still cleaner than burning oil, allows for more efficient scrubbing in a centralized location (instead of millions of tailpipes), moves the concentrated emissions away from high concentrations of people and directly reduces are use of foreign oil. This cartoon parroted the line the oil companies have been feeding us for years to perpetuate their monopoly on transportation.

Posted by Mike P | reply to this comment
July 11, 2008 8:30 pm

I hook my car up to a grid powered by solar panels on the roof, and then who's laughing?

Posted by Keeks | reply to this comment
July 14, 2008 5:14 pm

Acutally SDGE in 2008 was around 10% coal. Electricity, even when coal powered is better than fossil fuels. EDUCATE YOURSELF BEFORE DRAWING.

Posted by JuanGrande | reply to this comment
July 31, 2008 3:44 am

yea this is incorrect. Power plants achieve a much higher efficiency that the 4 stroke internal combustion engine. The damage to the environment should be focused on the development and disposal of the battery systems.

Posted by kevo | reply to this comment
August 11, 2008 4:32 pm

The cartoon is not "incorrect" or "uninformed" at all... it merely points out that if you look upstream, up the supply chain, the "zero emissions" claim is a smug conceit applicable only to the final product, conveniently ignoring not only that the electricity from the wall did in fact have emissions (or toxic waste, if it was nuclear-generated), but also, more broadly, that there are negative ecological impacts from the manufacture of all the subcomponents that go into most products nowadays. You think all that plastic in a modern car - or toy or household appliance - gets made with no negative impact? Sure, centralized coal may be cleaner than distributed internal combustion engines, but I take the cartoon's point is that all us consumers bear an almost original sin-like stain every time we buy most anything other than organic vegetables from fair-trade farmers.

Posted by Curt the Prius Driver | reply to this comment
August 19, 2008 7:08 am

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