A Good Idea...But

Nissan, the state of Tennessee, and TVA has recently announced that they will be partnering in order to put more electric cars on the road. At first glance, this seems like a great idea. Electric cars can reduce our national addiction to foreign oil, they can cut down on smog-inducing exhaust, and they can eliminate household gasoline expenses. However, one must remember how the car will be powered; you have to plug it in. Where does that energy in the wall come from? Electric utilities. Now, imagine everyone house in America plugging in an electric car in order for it to recharge. I'm no expert, but that requires a lot of extra energy than what is being consumed currently. Haven't electric utilities been trying to encourage households to cut energy usage? They have because they don't have the infrastructure to supply much more energy. Don't you think that they would have a tough time supplying the power for all those electric cars? In order to meet such an increase in demand, we would have to see a dramatic increase in construction of coal-fired plants, nuclear plants, etc. I'm not saying that electric cars are not good; we just have to consider where the energy is going to come from in order to power these vehicles.

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