Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 2:01 a.m.
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General Motors announced production of an electric battery-operated car that will get 230 miles per gallon. What gallon? Gallon of hot air perhaps?
Charging that battery requires an electric plug; that plug has to be fed electric power from somewhere — most likely from a coal-fired power plant. The energy equation for that is negative — it takes more energy to drive that electric car than a normal gasoline-powered car.
And its “carbon footprint” is larger. That idea of battery-operated cars was tried in the 19th century and found wanting, and this retired engineer with a Ph.D. in heat transfer and thermodynamics finds this old idea beyond ridiculous.
Again, what gallon exactly is that “g” in the 230 mpg car?
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