Electric cars are a huge focus for people/governments trying to cut emissions and lower the carbon footprint of transportation. But are electric cars really helping the environment? Or is the production of the batteries and electricity used to charge these batteries just as bad for the environment as regular cars? I believe the answer lies in where our energy that we use to charge our Nissan Leaf or Tesla comes from. If the energy we use to charge our electric cars does not come from an environmentally friendly source, then it really doesn’t seem much better than using a fuel-efficient gas car.  So where does our energy come from? I had no idea until I looked it up. In California, and most other states, energy comes from a combination of coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydroelectric, other renewables, and petroleum. Most of these are not sources of “clean energy” and I believe it’s a problem that the average person does not fully know where energy we consume is being produced. Electric cars have clear benefits for the environment, but we should also be conscience of where ou r energy that we use to charge our Nissan Leaf comes from.

Sources: http://blog.epa.gov/blog/2009/09/where- … come-from/

I never really thought deeply about the energy in which Hybrids or Nissan Leaf's come from. Thanks Alex for informing me a little bit more about how we should be more aware of what and how much energy we are using. I often wonder where dead battery's in Hybrids go? I did some research and one guy seemed to have a hard time finding a mechanic that would install and provide a battery for a reasonable cost. I also hope and would be interested to know if these old/dead batteries are going to E-waste Recycled factories where they can be broken down or reused, which would significantly help the environment

I completely agree and debate with my friends about this a lot. What you said about the recycled batteries, Sophia, is true and very good for the envirement. Unfortunately, that's not what happens in all cases. Batteries can be recycled, but often times are trashed and release tons of toxins. Also, I've found that most electric cars, via battery manufacturing, pollute the envirement much more than most cars will in their whole "lifespan", depending on the car.

Also, a lot of electric cars are dangerous on the road. A lot of lithium ion batteries have caught fire on the road. And there have been a ton of electric car accidents recently as oppose to regular cars.

This brings up a good point in that even though the car itself doesn't create excessive waste, the sources that the car gets power from do create waste. The question becomes; which is better for the environment? Does a normal car create more or less waste than a power plant that creates energy for an electric car such as a nissan leaf or a tesla? I am not sure but a good way to solve this problem would be to have designated charging areas, sort of like a plug in station you might find in places like a parking garage or a gas station, that get power solely from a solar powered source or a wind powered source. Eventually these would be built all over the place replacing gas stations and eventually becoming the only way to charge your car. By this time, most cars should be electric so many would want to have a charging station at home. This would allow for commercial production of "at home" charging stations made from recycled materials and powered with clean sources. Granted that the process in which these stations are made might release more pollutants into the air, it wo uld be significantly less than that of hundreds of thousands of gas powered cars thus solving the problem of excessive pollutants from personal vehicles.

I agree. Even though electric cars are better for cutting emissions and lower the amount of a carbon footprint in our environment the amount of energy that it takes to create the electricity is just as bad for the environment if not worse. That's a pretty good solution to have the solar plug-in stations be built at gas stations and parking lots and then have them spread out to being built in most places.

I definitely agree Alex. Although I am a hippocrit on this subject with my racing cars I think should really look further into these supposed clean vehicles. The supposed zero emission electric cars are just that, zero emissions. But what about the energy put into the batteries that power it. Just like you said Alex when people see that these cars have zero emissions they immediately think that it is healthy for the environment. Not only are we creating pollutants by making these batteries, but where do you think that they go after they are "dead"? Well it has to go somewhere. So this is really a double edged sword; not only are these "friendly" vehicles not friendly to start out with, they get worse as they go on and then just repeat the process.

I definitely agree that the source you use to charge your electric car is a factor in whether it wastes more energy or not. Many people believe electric cars are better for the environment because they aren't causing pollution from the use of gasoline, but they don't realize electric cars could be effecting the planet in other ways. The source used to get electricity for the car plays a major role in whether it creates waste or not. This source could easily create as much waste as a normal gas-used car does. using electric cars for transportation does help lower our carbon footprint, but the amount of energy that it takes to run these cars could be just as bad for our environment.