The Open Road: Is Going Electric Really Cleaner Than Gas?

All electric! It’s a phrase heard more and more as U.S. consumers creep towards the idea of transitioning away from fossil fuels in their day-to-day lives. Last week, we discussed how Europe and China have embraced the electric vehicle (EV) revolution while the U.S. lags behind. (If you missed last week’s blog post, never fear, here’s the link.) Despite America’s cautious approach to EVs, their introduction into the U.S. market appears to be inevitable given many automotive companies have declared that combustion engines will be phased out in the coming decades. This begs the question: Is electrifying our lives really the "green" thing to do?

A photo from this GreenBiz article shows EV charging that uses electricity produced by solar panels.

The short answer: Yes. Electrifying the transportation sector would significantly improve our greenhouse gas emissions as a society. This improvement is because gasoline, for lack of a better word, is nasty. Despite being energy-dense, this fuel source emits a lot of CO2 into the atmosphere that essentially gets trapped and warms up the earth’s climate. If America traded combustion engines for EVs, the fuel source of the vehicles would transition from gas to the U.S. grid. This makes electrifying the transportation sector a cleaner option, even if this transition happened this instant without any grid alterations.

A New York Times article by Hiroko Tabuchi and Brad Plumer provides an excellent comparative example for two of the exact car models I mentioned in my last post. (They must have time-traveled from 2021 to the future just to read my blog! Could a time machine count as an EV?) According to the article, a Toyota Camry emits approximately 385 grams of CO2 per mile versus a Chevy Bolt, an EV that only emits 189 grams of CO2 per mile. That difference is good news for a warming climate and a CO2-heavy atmosphere.

A gas station that was converted in 2019 to EV charging stations in Takoma Park, Maryland, photographed by Mhari Shaw for this NPR article.

Despite the positive implications of that comparison, the article also mentions that if a Chevy Bolt was charged from a source that only uses coal, the EV's number of grams of CO2 per mile would shoot up. Therein lies the central issue of electrifying the transportation sector and other industrial sectors: the emissions directly relate to whatever energy sources contribute to the electricity on the grid. Although America is transitioning away from coal, most U.S. electricity is still not produced by clean and/or renewable energy sources. Though the federal government’s current objectives seem to incentivize and increase clean and sustainable energy practices in the U.S., these plans may not come to fruition for years or decades. As more electricity is produced and used to meet the charging needs of EVs, grid infrastructure and clean energy will remain a central aspect of concern from an environmental perspective.

Here’s what we do know: Over the lifetime of an electric car, from its manufacturing process to its last use, the EV produces fewer emissions than the average car or truck. So, going electric would be better for the environment, and the impact will be even more significant as long as the U.S. continues to move away from a grid that's reliant on nonrenewable fossil fuels. As the public leans on consistent electricity more and more in the coming years, is the U.S. grid system prepared to perform? I certainly wouldn’t bet on it, but we can get into that next week. Thanks for reading!