In view of how much corporate welfare Team Obama is furnishing the coal and nuclear power generation industries (at the expense of expanding truly clean energy) most of the lithium batteries in these new electric cars will be charged with power from dirty generation sources..

Unfortunately, most of the cars on the road will be gas powered for a long time (perhaps all the time there is left; hope not) because not everyone will be able to trade up to electrics right off the bat, unless there is some sort of subsidy or buyback program.

The only viable solutions to the energy problem require a nationwide mobilization which would require leadership, which we don't currently have, done through national government, which right wingers hate and which some of us who aren't right wing nevertheless distrust.

Another good article. Thanks.

"Will electric car boom leave workers and environment in the dust?"

Yes.

All seemingly "good" investor-driven business activities will always and ultimately leave workers and the environment in the dust. It is the model that does not work, cannot work, not particular activities within the model. The desires of the investors will always smash the needs of the workers. It can be no other way. Return on investment is enhanced to the exact degree that workers are exploited and the environment destroyed. This is not an unfortunate by-product, merely one facet of the system, it is the essence and foundation of the system.

It is impossible to buy or invest our way to social and political change.

A big change over to electric cars will never happen. With our failing economy and high unemployment few people will be able to afford expensive electric vehicles. For those who've seen the movie, "Who Killed the Electric Car" you'll know that what chance we had to have more electric vehicles on the road has passed. At one point in the SF Bay Area they were building charging stations in various places because of a state mandate to have more electric vehicles on the road. But the same auto makers who were making the vehicles (all of them) where also fighting the mandate which was eventually killed. So while we can argue the merits of the supplies that go into making our products, an electric vehicle would still have the benefit of having a smaller impact (nothing is green). But it won't matter since we only have one vehicle, the Chevy Volt, even for sale (although there are smaller independent makers and retro-fit vehicles but they are also expensive).

Good points from both readers. The 'Green Revolution' is still far from becoming a reality. The key to any Green Revolution is to eliminate utility companies from the picture. As Michelle Chen said... "Ideally, a car that runs on a rechargeable battery powered by renewable fuel would curb carbon emissions and rid our streets of dirty exhaust" In my own case I have a savonius windmill (no danger to birds and quiet) that charges the battery of my electric car. I can also use the windmill to produce hydrogen gas (stored on site) which could be used to fuel my hydrogen battery (fuel cell) instead of a Lithium battery, however there are no commercially available fuel cell batteries out there yet. At the moment I can only use the hydrogen gas to heat my home and cook. I could run an internal combustion engine on H as well except for the fact that I currently own an electric car! It must be noted that my current system was expensive to acquire, but that is only because it is one of a kind. I also met opposition from a group trying to persuade people from turning to wind energy (a right wing, corporate funded advocacy group?) claiming among other things that wind generator frequencies cause cancer and mental illness. Don't you feel lucky that we have nuclear and coal to save us?
Ideally we could eliminate fossil fuels and corporate energy companies in one fell swoop if we had strong leadership that represented the public interest. This would begin with a national commitment to making every homeowner 'utility free' by such and such date. At the same time national mandates would require an incremental increase in the percentage of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles produced and sold in the country. All new infrastructure programs from trains, planes and ships would have to be hydrogen powered. Gas lines would have to be in public hands with homeowners receiving a small cheque (NOT a bill!) from the business community for their excess hydrogen production. All homes would have to be retrofitted with renewable energy systems (solar, wind, hydro) over a ten or fifteen year period funded by taxes on 'dirty energy' and the products they produce.
Hybrids and electric cars are a welcomed innovation, however all of these products must be viewed as short term transition products that will eventually take us to a hydrogen economy. Unfortunately, a corporate agenda will fight this transition at every opportunity and keep the public in the dark as much as possible.

Where the hell does the electric come from to charge the batteries? That sure as hell isn't green!!! Stop the bullshyt !

Michelle: A very thoughtful column, although I take issue with it's main premise.

Yes, a life-cycle analysis of most manufacturing reveals it to be dirty, and often fraught with negative social and labor externalities.

But that's precisely the point -- if nearly all process have negative social and environmental externalities associated with them, it makes no sense to isolate the cleanest among them and hold them up to scrutiny. The fact is, electric vehicles -- although far from perfect -- are orders of magnitude cleaner than conventional vehicles.

Your argument is tantamount to mounting an assault on parking meter violations in the midst of a murder spree.

The solution to dirty manufacturing is to generalize best practices through regulation of something like the new ISO Corporate Responsibility Standards, not to besmirch giant steps forward.

"The ultimate symbol of the green industrial promise is the much-hyped electric car..."

This is flat-out wrong!!
The best way to get truly Green transit is to do like Europe, Japan, Taiwan
and wean off of our auto addiction by running and expanding public transit.
Public transit, in particular trains and light rail can take 10-15 times the
number of people for the same land use, is 5 times more energy efficient,
does not require asphalt from our dwindling oil supplies, causes virtually no
deaths like the 30,000+ per year for cars or injuries in the hundreds of thousands.
Electric cars take as much energy as a house, require the whole vast costs of
the auto addiction - ambulances, traffic cops, traffic courts, snow plowing of acres upon acres of land.
Lester Brown from the Earth Policy Institute (formerly Worldwatch Institute)
pointed out in Wednesdays episode of the Nation's excellent series on
"Peak Oil and Climate Change" that just 5 cars take 1 acre of land!
http://www.thenation.com/video/159399/lester-brown-planets-scarcest-resource-time
Peak Oil and Climate Change series:
http://www.thenation.com/article/157434/peak-oil-and-changing-climate

Since the Great Recession hit in 2008 over 150 cities have CUT existing
public transit while Obama wasted $3 Billion on cash for clunkers.
By the way many trains and almost all light rail systems are ALREADY
electric!
There is nothing wrong with electric shuttles, buses to connect public transit trains. But 2 ton personal electric cars?
Not sustainable...
They take too much energy, land, parking, resources to build and the huge
costs of road, highway infrastructure.
This past Winter where I live towns would still go broke plowing the snow for
all those electric car roads, parking lots, etc.
We have 233,000 miles of Rails all over the USA, vestiges of the greatest Rail
system in history up until 1950. 79% of our population lives in urban areas
and tracks pass by a vast majority of those people.
Get the trains going!
As Lester Brown warns - we do not have time to wait!
By RUNNING our already existing public transit to all out capacity we could
easily save 10% of our oil usage and 5% of greenhouse emissions in just a year.

"... the environmental impact of large-scale lithium mining COULD disrupt local ecosystems, sap critical water supplies and encroach on traditional farming livelihoods."

No need to hedge your bet Michelle. It most certainly will.

http://kiely-flashpoint.blogspot.com/2011/03/consumption-consumption-whats-my.html

The electric car is quieter than internal combustion. It is also easier to minimize the passengers' exposure to toxins. It is a better choice for urban commuting. If das kapital were serving the people's better interests, it would produce electric cars for the benefits, balanced by the need to minimize full costs of overall consumption. But das kapital cares nothing about the people's better interests.

Instead, das kapital seeks only to expand itself, by inflaming/exploiting the people's appetites for things they don't really need. Such as personal transport as a means to isolate/alienate one's self from one's community, and from nature. So expect to see das kapital pushing 5-ton electric carz on us for 200 mile round-trip daily commutes.

In stark contrast to the agenda of... DAS KAPITAL!!! and the elites who worship at its altar, we on the far left have long finished our coherent framing of our needs, our better interests, and how to fulfill them, through control of public policy, and industrial production/resource allocation.

So we advocate electric cars under very specific conditions: We limit miles driven per vehicle to something like 1000 mi/yr. And we convey above the noise of das kapital that internal combustion is most appropriate for inter-community travel, i.e. longer distance.

And of course the fuel for internal combustion is produced by small local biofuel producers, independent enterprises under ten man-powers in size. And the electric is produced by solar thermal or wind power. These condition are mandatory, not optional, for maximizing value and minimizing plunder/destruction/enslavement.

The net results of far left policies are maximum health, happiness and fulfillment of people (and planet). We allocate 1/20th the resources to personal transport that das kapital allocates. Everyone is free to take a walk on the far left side. If you want to be part of the solution, instead of part of the problem, you have to absolutely reject the elites and their grotesque god-monster... DAS KAPITAL!!!

Articles like this reinorce the fact that it our lifestlyes that are unsustainable, not our toys. Every new toy we produce still has the same old drawbacks. Electric cars don't solve surburban sprawl or corporate concentration of power. They won't minimize resource extraction, or contribute to solving the obesity epidemic. They won't reduce the need for coal, NG, nuclear, or hydro power. Instead they will add addtional strain to our existing infrastructure and spur on new development of power stations and power production.

It is necesssary to hold these new "green" products up to scrutiny because they are the beacons of the greenwash efforts by big business. Every new alleged "green" product serves the status quo and reduces real efforts for a sustainable future. If people think they can maintain their exact lifestlye, but only greener, they are deluded. It is our lifestyles that are unsustainable and until that changes no amount of new green products can save us. Most westerners have grown accustomed to self-entitlement and minimal sacrifice. They act like it is their birth right to pollute, to consume, to waste. Until there is a fundamental change in this view, green efforts are wasted.

I am not sure when the driving factor behind corporations became beholding only to the profit motivate providing high Corporate salaries and high investment returns leaving the taxpayers of the world to pick up the cost of the destruction to the surrounding environments where they have done their business and made their short term profits and returns. Back in the old days of the 50/60/70's businesses I thought corporations valued workers and communities at least here in the USA. Of course, those that risk their capital need to be paid a decent return but it has gotten way out of wack and we the people have benefited from the products they have mined, drilled et al and we gotten it at reasonable prices until we have to do the clean up or we loose loved ones to chemical poisoning. So let do it on the front end and the corporation do what they do in a responsible manner and maybe not make quite so much profit, we the people pay a little higher price but don't have to spend our tax dollars on backend, and investors don't make quite as large as return. Just think it would create jobs on the front end when corporations were doing things right the first time. Fairness and equity and equality has to be brought back into the equation.
Multi Million March on Washington. We need your help:100,000 in Wisconsin, x 16 other states = 1 million 600,000. 15 states more states x 50,000 = 1 million 250,000 29 more states at 10,000 = 290,000 total = approx 3 million people in Washington Dec in July before they go home for their August working vacation which will be campaign for money. Let's talk with Ed Schultz and Tom Hartmann, Ring of Fire, John Stewart, Rachel Maddow and other to do it together and coordinate the effort and plan for the next four months. Copy and paste this and e-mail to all of them. We the people have to be in their face, I don't think alot of them really got the message with what the wonderful people of Wisconsin did for three weeks straight. These people have gotten so arrogant and they have so much money and big corporations backing them, they think they are invincible. I am not social media literate to start a national awareness and desire to join the march or sit in, I need help.

In a rugged individualist nation such as the USA, the need to switch from cars to public transportation such as buses and trains will be the very last idea on the list. Instead, all we have here is changing from one type of guzzler to another. When will this sick and rotten nation put their feet down, hang up the keys, and learn to walk, socialize, and ride together at ease? :.(