Finally got me some edumacation!

[ksnogas2112]

1% coal is better than 73% sigh....

 

[GRA]

1% coal is better than 73% sigh....

You could live in West Virginia - 97% as of a few years ago. I saw a list somewhere that showed 9 states that got 80% or more of their electricity from coal, in I think 2009. Aside from WV, IIRR it included Indiana @ 94%, Wyoming at 93%?, and so on down. IIRC Utah, Ohio, New Mexico, Kentucky?, Missouri, and North Dakota made the list.

Edit: See the current % for your state:

http://statemap.americaspower.org/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

 

[JeremyW]

I was in Kentucky for a bushiness trip a few weeks back, and while their electricity is 90% coal, they are paying ~8c a kWh without tiered pricing, making a charge very cheap. However, when I brought up electric cars, the lunch time discussion degenerated into the engineers arguing amongst themselves about the politics of subsidies of oil vs. EV's and efficiencies of power plants vs. ICE's...

And these were electrical engineers specializing in power electronics. :roll: I couldn't get much of a word in edgewise. I did get through to them that California is sort of the canary in the coal mine in terms of alternate energy transportation, since we were paying nearly a dollar more per gallon for gas at the time. Apparently someone at the company was driving a volt, and someone mentioned that he "seemed to like it." :?

For those in high coal consuming states, I'd stick to talking about performance and cost advantages.

Jeremy

 

[surfingslovak]

1) DO NOT tell people it's electric.
2) Tell them about the powerful electromagnet that surrounds the gas tank. Every night when you plug it in, the magnet "ionizes" the gasoline, making it 10 times more powerful.
3) Explain to them that GM has had this technology for decades but the oil companies signed a deal with GM to keep it off the market.
4) Because of the GM bankruptcy the contract to keep this a secret was declared void and they can sell the technology now.
5) You have to plug it in every night because the ionizing only lasts 24 hours.

Viola! Pickup truck gets 100mpg.

I think that's exactly the angle Jay Leno and Bob Lutz used! ;-)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5STy6HRZEQ[/youtube]