Re:Show HN: Make continuous reforestation part of your daily...
by Robotbeat on Sunday March 21, 2021 @10:47AM
(#26530831)
Yup, absolutely true. And I think people underestimate how good electric cars are. They have about half the emissions of conventional cars even if all their electricity comes from gas (but about 40% of electricity in the US is carbonfree—about half nuclear and the rest wind, hydro, solar, and geothermal).
Each new conventional car sold is a locked-in 100 tons of CO2 (lower if we we crush them sooner). Electric cars are much smaller (half to start with), and depending on how fast we transition the electric grid could be only like 10-25 tons and then next to nothing (as even manufacture becomes decarbonized).
That's correct and everything, but I do think that for a while the best strategy is to focus on coal. Yeah, some electrifying of transportation won't harm either, but the largest short term gains and the largest long term opportunities all start on replacing coal.
If replacing coal leads to lots of peaking natgas plants, so be it. It is still a gain on the short term, and it creates clear target for storage on the long term.