Arguments for/against Promoting Electric Vehicles

If you have $60,000 to spend on reducing your carbon footprint, I believe it would be a mistake to spend it on an electric vehicle.

I would spend a few hundred dollars on converting your current vehicle(s) to run on biofuels: E85 (that’s 85% ethanol, 15% unleaded petrol) for petrol vehicles, biodiesel for diesel vehicles. That will more-than-remove your vehicle(s) from your carbon footprint, because more carbon is pulled out of the atmosphere in growing the feedstock for the biofuel than is released back when running your vehicle(s).

You could spend another few hundred dollars on a still to produce your own ethanol, or on a backyard biodiesel cooker, especially if you are some distance from a service station that sells E85 or biodiesel.

If you have a diesel vehicle and if you live in an area with coconut palms, intercept some of the coconuts which are de-nutted each year (to protect the public from falling coconuts) and taken to local landfill (where they rot away, releasing methane to the atmosphere, a greenhouse gas between 25 and 85 times more potent than CO₂), and the biodiesel they produce will give you an exhaust that smells like a Thai restaurant.

The $58,000+ you have left over can be used to better insulate your house, especially in places usually neglected like under the floor and in the walls, and in better draft exclusion, and in double- and triple-glazing with low-conductivity window frames (i.e. not aluminium). You can buy heavier drapes and pelmets to further reduce loss of winter warmth and summer cool through your windows.

Then you can install solar panels on your roof, putting in solar hot water while you’re up there, and replace any gas appliances with electrical ones, making sure any air-conditioning/heating is provided by reverse-cycle technology (what these days is often called a heat pump).

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