Throttle shock -- By Grady Means, The Washington Times

 (Illustration by Alexander Hunter, The Washington Times)


The dirty secret about ‘clean’ electric cars 

I have to warn you, if you repeat any of what I tell you, people will run from you at cocktail parties.

About electric cars: When the White House hasn't been selling Obamacare, it has been touting "alternative energy" and electric cars — and hugely subsidizing them with your tax money. I'm just wondering if they could be as wrong about energy as they are about health care.

I have to admit that many of my smartest friends, engineers who have made a bundle starting their own companies, are paying a fortune for these cars. American taxpayers have subsidized tens of thousands of them in San Francisco, Hollywood and Palo Alto, Calif., and the New York-to-Greenwich, Conn., corridor, all homes to America's really smart, thought-leading, style-setting elite. In fact, you have to make an appointment to order one, and they're not cheap. Ignore the fact that some are catching on fire — these things happen. Upwards of a hundred grand, though?

Please, let's all agree to suspend that trite and condescending "low gas-mileage, high-polluting, selfish-Republican" rhetoric just for a moment and assume we are all on the same side about using the Earth's resources efficiently, not pumping huge amounts of harmful pollution into the environment, and supporting the growth and security of our country so that everyone lives a decent life.

Here's the bottom line: "Clean burning" electric cars plug into the wall and run on electricity. That all seems really antiseptic. No noise, no fumes and all high-tech. Really good for the environment, right? You have to feel good about that, and certainly cool.

Here's is the sticking point. What is hidden behind that wall socket? Where does all the electricity come from? This question may make people smile, take their chardonnay and run from you.

 National energy statistics suggest to me that the answer is 37 percent coal, 30 percent natural gas, 19 percent nuclear, 7 percent hydro, 3.5 percent wind, 1.4 percent biomass, 1 percent oil, 0.41 percent geothermal, 0.11 percent solar, and "other gases."

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