![]() It is estimated that more than 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). These mines do not have pollution controls and employ children. Claim: Sixty-eight percent of the world's cobalt, a significant part of a battery, comes from the Congo. For example, Tesla is phasing out cobalt from its batteries, albeit likely due to outside pressure, because cobalt is often mined by children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). “No technology is zero impact, but some battery chemistries use fewer toxic materials than others. It is true that there are rechargeable and single-use batteries, both of which contain toxic materials of varying degrees. Batteries use toxic and heavy metals to chemically store electricity, including zinc, manganese, lithium, silver oxide, or zinc and carbon. This assumption may be invalid for two reasons: 1) EV adoption is very high in places like California, which has minimal coal in its power mix, and 2) it depends on when the vehicles are charged, and which power plants dominate at the time the vehicles are charged.” Claim: There are two orders of batteries: rechargeable and single-use. ![]() “The second part implies that the generation is proportional to vehicle charging. was from coal plants in 2021, up from 19% the year before, so the first part of this statement is incorrect,” explained Krieger. Energy Information Administration (EPA) show that 22% of electricity generated in the U.S. is from coal-fired plants, so 40% of EVs on the road are coal-powered. Claim: Forty percent of electricity generated in the U.S. ![]() Now 94 percent of people in the US live where driving an EV produces less emissions than using a 50 mpg gasoline car. And our estimate for EV emissions is almost 10 percent lower than our previous estimate two years ago. That’s significantly better than the most efficient gasoline car (58 mpg) and far cleaner than the average new gasoline car (31 mpg) or truck (21 mpg) sold in the US. Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed data from 2018 and affirmed that EVs produce significantly fewer emissions than gasoline:īased on where EVs have been sold, driving the average EV produces global warming pollution equal to a gasoline vehicle that gets 88 miles per gallon (mpg) fuel economy. However, emissions from both greenhouse gases and health-damaging air pollutants throughout the course of the vehicle’s use depend on how and where the vehicle is produced, what electricity is used to charge the vehicle, and how the vehicle is disposed of. Claim: It is invalid to say that an electric vehicle is zero-emission.Īn electric vehicle has zero tailpipe emissions, noted Krieger. There are controversies with the technology, such as concerns that natural-gas-fueled generators used weren’t reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.īattery facilities also allow for power from renewable sources to be produced when the wind is blowing windmills or the sun is shining on solar panels before being stored for later use during times of high consumption. John wrote in an article for Green Tech Media, the goal of projects like SGIP are to incentivize power-producing technologies that contribute less to greenhouse gas emissions, such as solar or wind, than fossil fuels do. (For more background on this, read " Energy Storage: How It Works and Its Role in an Equitable Clean Energy Future," by the Union of Concerned Scientists.)Ĭalifornia has specifically designed its Self-Generation Incentive Program ( SGIP) to encourage charging at times when grid emissions are low, pointed out Krieger. It is true that batteries store electricity produced elsewhere, but what that electricity is generated by depends on the electric grid that the battery is connected to. Rather, they store electricity produced elsewhere, primarily by coal, uranium, natural gas-powered plants, or diesel-fueled generators. Claim: Batteries do not make electricity. ![]() The entirety of the post is too long to share here, but we have broken out its primary claims below. For help evaluating them, we spoke with Elena Krieger, director of research at PSE Healthy Energy, a multidisciplinary research and policy institute focused on the adoption of evidence-based energy policy. ![]()
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