Electric Cars Are Not ‘Zero-Emission Vehicles’

Electric Cars Are Not ‘Zero-Emission Vehicles’
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James D. Agresti
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News Analysis
While praising California’s decision to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, Governor Gavin Newsom declared that this will require “100 percent of new car sales in California to be zero-emission vehicles” like “electric cars.” In reality, electric cars emit substantial amounts of pollutants and may be more harmful to the environment than conventional cars.

Toxic Pollution

The notion that electric vehicles are “zero-emission” is rooted in a deceptive narrative that ignores all pollutants which don’t come out of a tailpipe. Assessing the environmental impacts of energy technologies requires measuring all forms of pollution they emit over their entire lives, not a narrow slice of them. To do this, researchers perform “life cycle assessments” or LCAs. As explained by the Environmental Protection Agency, LCAs allow for:
James D. Agresti
James D. Agresti
Author
James D. Agresti is the president of Just Facts, a research institute dedicated to publishing facts about public policies and teaching research skills, and a policy advisor to The Heartland Institute.
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