SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Transportation accounts for a huge portion of US carbon emissions. As recently as 2014, it was behind the electricity sector — 26 percent of US emissions to electricity's 30 percent. But as the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) just confirmed, as of 2016, they have crossed paths. "Electric power sector CO2 emissions," EIA writes, "are now regularly below transportation sector CO2 emissions for the first time since the late 1970s."
This is happening because power sector "carbon intensity" — carbon emissions per unit of energy produced — is falling, as coal is replaced with natural gas, renewables, and efficiency.
The only realistic prospect for reducing transportation sector emissions rapidly and substantially is electrification. How much market share EVs take from oil (gasoline is by far the most common use for oil in the US) will matter a great deal.
[...] Today saw the release of a new study from the Grantham Institute for Imperial College London and the Carbon Tracker Initiative. It argues that solar photovoltaics (PV) and EVs together will kick fossil fuel's ass, quickly.
"Falling costs of electric vehicle and solar technology," they conclude, "could halt growth in global demand for oil and coal from 2020." That would be a pretty big deal.
The "business as usual" (BAU) scenarios that typically dominate these discussions are outdated, the researchers argue. New baseline scenarios should take into account updated information on PV, EV, and battery costs. (The EIA doesn't expect inflation-adjusted prices of EVs to fall to $30,000 until 2030, even as multiple automakers say they'll hit that within a few years.)
[...] If these forecasts play out, fossil fuels could lose 10 percent market share to PV and EVs within a decade. A 10 percent loss in market share was enough to send the US coal industry spiraling, enough to cause Europe's utilities to hemorrhage money. It could seriously disrupt life for the oil majors. "Growth in EVs alone could lead to 2 million barrels of oil per day being displaced by 2025," the study says, "the same volume that caused the oil price collapse in 2014-15."
Source: http://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/2/2/14467748/electric-vehicles-oil-market
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 04 2017, @06:45AM
It isn't like people will have to charge every day
You have not been around other people much have you? At one apt complex we ended up having to have assigned spaces because some people would just park across 3 and call it a day. Or have 8 cars and go 'what? they are free I pay for the rent'. You think there wouldnt be people camped out at the outlets?
over half of the commutes in the US are less than 20 miles round-trip
The other half are not. I know at least a few dozen people that commute 80+ miles per day just to have a job.
You are making excuses. Look right now today (not in the future, right now) there are not enough chargers. The infrastructure of your typical condo complex NOT up to the task of several hundred extra mega watts being used every night. Most of these dudes pitch a fucking fit just giving you better internet access much less 200-300 220v+ electric plugs. Then on the other end most places do not have the things.
Then on top of that most places have this thing called weather. Meaning they will need to be maintained. Having dealt with many landlords fixing something is not at the top of their list unless they are made to do it. Many are an extra special kind of miserly bastard that makes ebinizer scrooge seem like a saint.
If there were chargers everywhere and they were decently fast (10-20 mis tops) and there was 1 gas station in the state I would probably would not get an ICE and say 'it is a dumb thing to get'. But right now it is the other way around.