How are cars powered by electricity made from coal less environmentally damaging than cars that burn gasoline?
In: Technology
It is much easier to add more filters and treatment to the exhaust from a power plant then to do the same for many thousands of cars. Cars become more polluting as their parts wear against each other, and many of them do not have the same level of care that a power plant (hopefully) gets from its staff. Perhaps you have smelled the emissions from a car that is stronger than the usual odor, indicating that it is no longer working as well as new – maybe the driver is unaware of this, maybe the driver knows, but can’t afford the money (or time) to set it right. The power plant has people whose main job is to make sure it is running as efficiently and cleanly as possible – within the limitations of plant’s equipment.
It would not be hugely beneficial if we powered all our cars with coal. But electric cars are energy agnostic – you can replace the coal plant with solar panels or wind farms without changing anything about the car.
A gasoline engine only runs on gasoline.
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