Vijay Kamath
English 11000
10/13/21
In our current day to day, we try our best to preserve the planet in the big and small ways we can. The recent innovation of electric vehicles has helped to create a market for drivers to decrease the greenhouse emissions that are produced by gas powered cars. However, it is not a clear and easy shift to make for most of the country as there are many factors that play into why most of the population has not shifted to the electric vehicle system just yet. As consumers, we want to get the best deal for a product. Most of the electric vehicles are out of the budget for the average American worker, as well as less accessible to recharge, with a substantially larger number of gas stations compared to car recharging stations. The environmental impact of electric cars is statically lower than that of gas-powered cars as there is no carbon monoxide emission that helps to create greenhouse gases. Another factor that also contributes to the conversation is where the actual source of these different vehicles originates from. Electrical cars do need a large amount of power to operate, and their sources of electricity production may be as detrimental as the fossil fuels used for gas powered vehicles. These different sides of the argument help to tackle the question of whether electric vehicles are more economical and environmentally friendly compared to gas-powered vehicles.
One of the most important aspects of a vehicle to a consumer is the price. In the journal article, “Taxation of Motor Vehicles and Gasoline”, the author states how taxation has increased the gas prices each year and inflation is a constant process. Gas prices increase due to the fact of limiting resources and the dwindling of resources have has led to fossil fuels becoming a slight bit rarer as each day goes by. Current gas prices will always be at their highest as there are fewer fossil fuels than there were yesterday (208). Research from a different article, “Electric s. Gas: Is It Cheaper to Drive Gas”, the author states, “The average sticker price on an electric car is $19,000 higher than an average gasoline-powered vehicle” (1). The article goes to say, “California’s Clean Cars 4 All program, for instance, helps low-income people living in communities with poor air quality turn in their old gas guzzlers for a stipend of up to $9,500 toward the purchase of an electric or hybrid car,…“(4). Although the is a strong emphasis for citizens to buy electric vehicles, the cost of a singular electric car could equal the price of two gas powered cars. Even with the added stimulus check from the government to offer $9,500 towards an electric vehicle, the consumer will still end up paying more out of pocket. Even though electric vehicles have been existing for a number of years, gas-powered vehicles have been in use for over 70 years. The technology of gas-powered vehicles is so common that almost everyone has the budget to access them. Consumers would rather invest their money in a cheaper product, the gas-powered car, that can do the same basic function of driving as an electric car would do. Electric vehicles in the future, however, seem to be a more common choice of vehicle. In the article, “Electric Vehicles: Powering the Future”, the author states that since electric vehicles have a higher average price, that they are prone to decrease in price as time goes son as the technology becomes more common and accessible (4). Most of the current consumers who own a tesla or plan to own a tesla live in a household and have access to an outlet in the garage. A discrepancy that can be seen with the major market especially in that of big cities, is that most people live in apartments where they are not able to charge their car with an outlet and may have to drive long distances to charge their car at a charging station. The charging stations are also creating a barrier in the market for citizens who must drive far distances and do not have ease of access to a charging station compared to a gas-powered vehicle. The current pricing of electric vehicles is driving away a large portion of the population since it is out of their budget. The price of these electric vehicles must decrease or become more common if people want to see a change in atmospheric contamination.
A main reason for the innovation of electric vehicles is to decrease the carbon emissions and the greenhouse gases that enter the environment. The fumes emitted by the gas-powered vehicles have shown to have a detrimental effect on the environment as seen I this study done on the Dutch army activity in 1989. In the article, “Environmental Impact of Dutch Military Activities”, author states that the heavy usage of gas-powered vehicles, started to create more zones of chemical pollution in the country. There is one chart showing the inhabitants of a specific area and another that shows the number of army vehicles in that area. There is a corresponding chart that depicts the effect of the inhabitants’ crops and produce. There is a steady decline in the number of produce and crops made as the environment grew more toxic as the army vehicles were active in those areas (55). As the crops began to decrease, there was an increase in the toxic materials found in the soil which became a problem for farmers as their land would be useless for making a living. The toxic material came from the dead plants being absorbed into the soil and feeding all the decomposed parts back into the plant that still used the soil for nutrients. It took years for the innovation of electric vehicles to help correct this issue. The lower to almost no emission of carbon gases from these electric vehicles has helped to give a cleaner environment to smaller towns that are the backbone of the produce in the nation. In the article, “Are There Environmental Benefits from Driving Electric Vehicles? The Importance of Local Factors”, the author is showing how there is a significant increase of crop production as there is no major pollution coming from vehicles themselves, however there may be a new type of emission that radiates from the electric vehicles. After calculating CO₂, SO₂, heat and other photonic charges that are byproducts of the electric vehicles’ battery, there is a new type of pollution that scientists may need to look out for. The author then goes on to state that even though these emissions are miniscule compared to the carbon emissions and greenhouse gases, there still is a way that energy from cars are being dispersed out to the environment and causing damage (3708). Since electric vehicles are rely heavily on a large battery, that battery needs to be replaced more frequently than a gas-powered car’s battery. This means that there is more physical pollution created by the electric vehicles as there damaged or no functioning batteries are added to landfills and causing damage to the land and the air when toxic waste builds up on the landfills. There needs to be more upgrading and ingenuity to the technology of electric vehicles since there is still more way pollution is occurring with a technology that is supposed to prevent it.
The last piece of the argument is where the origin of the power that each of these types of vehicles runs on. The gas-powered vehicles run on gasoline, which is based from oil that is fracked from the ground. There are many places where fracking is a major source of income for the country and helps to create a market for countries who otherwise have nothing to offer in the resources department. In the research report, “Economic value of gas-to-power and export utilization”, The author states how oil fracking has helped to keep many countries afloat in the current situations of the market and that since there is no significant natural resources to contaminate with the emissions, the country decides to dig for oil. More specifically talking about Ghana’s export of gas to power has been able to increase its values since its oil has been sent to countries including Japan, which at that time was the big oil consumer in the world (12). Even though this may appear as a short-term victory, there are global implications as polluted air is spread to other parts of the world and contaminating lands internationally. Mass population then use the gases in their cars and burn the fuel for power, but as a byproduct, the gas forms to further contaminated the air supply on the planet leaving many citizens in a state of health crisis. Most people who then say that the logical solution is that the public should switch to electric vehicles in order to decrease emissions. However, it is just like switching from one toxic power sorcerer to another. In the article, “Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas and Criteria Air Pollutant Emissions of Electric Vehicles in the United States”, the author helps to distinguish that the electrical power that used in the electric cars are also causing emissions and pollution to the environment, and it will only increase as more people start to use electric vehicles. The electric power that flows through out cities and suburbs comes from nuclear power plants and produces nuclear waste into oceans, lands, and even the towns that surround them. There is an accompanying chart which displays chemical emissions such as CH₄ and N₂O that are released from these nuclear power plants (329). As one would use their electric car charging station in their house, their electric bill may increase slightly, however it still requires a large amount of energy to power a car. And of that number multiplies when the nuclear power plant is not ready to produce that much electricity, then there might be a blackout. And since there is a high demand for people to start to use electric vehicles, nuclear power plants will be forced to expand, which will result in more nuclear emissions and nuclear waste being exposed to the environments that surround it. The switch to electric vehicles may seem like a logical solution to the emission problem to gas-powered cars, however there is still a bigger issue of how we generate power in the first place.
As we stand in the present, it is fair to say that electric vehicles are not as economically or environmentally friendly compared to gas-powered vehicles. With the high pricing, the physical limitations of charging stations, and the nuclear waste that power plants have to produce to accommodate the influx of electric vehicles, it is comparable to how detrimental gas-powered vehicles have left crops to rot and cause carbon pollution around the world. The plant is still suffering in one way or another as these two different paths to powering vehicles still cause pollution and it up to us to figure out ways to producing energy in a way that does not bare harmful consequences to the environment and the economy.
Resources:
“TAXATION OF MOTOR VEHICLES AND GASOLINE.” The Bulletin of the National Tax Association, vol. 8, no. 7, National Tax Association, 1923, pp. 205–13, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41787961.
“Electric vs. Gas: Is It Cheaper to Drive an EV?” Natural Resources Defense Council, Palmer. Brian, 2020
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/electric-vs-gas-it-cheaper-drive-ev
Moorhouse, Jeremy, and Katie Laufenberg. Electric Vehicles: Powering the Future. Pembina Institute, 2010, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep00254.
Vertegaal, Paul J. M. “Environmental Impact of Dutch Military Activities.” Environmental Conservation, vol. 16, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 1989, pp. 54–64, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44521149.
Holland, Stephen P., et al. “Are There Environmental Benefits from Driving Electric Vehicles? The Importance of Local Factors.” The American Economic Review, vol. 106, no. 12, American Economic Association, 2016, pp. 3700–29, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24911358.
Fritsch, Jorik. “Economic Value of Gas-to-Power and Export Utilization.” Gas-to-Power Market and Investment Incentive for Enhancing Generation Capacity: An Analysis of Ghana’s Electricity Sector, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, 2015, pp. 10–16, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep30986.8.
Cai, Hao, et al. “Life-Cycle Greenhouse Gas and Criteria Air Pollutant Emissions of Electric Vehicles in the United States.” SAE International Journal of Alternative Powertrains, vol. 2, no. 2, SAE International, 2013, pp. 325–36, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26169016.
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