electric cars are all the rage.

my family just invested in the 2010 honda insight for the sake of being "greener". (honestly, we really just want to save money. saving the earth is always a perk though.)

now im aware of the...not so goodness that is hybrid cars, batteries are a yucky yucky thing, as with coal, the metals that make up said batteries must be mined, exposing the environment to all kinds of things that it wasnt meant to be exposed to, in addition to the people employed to mine said metals. then comes the disposal, which is inevitable at some point in time.
the car we traded in wasnt even old, nor was it anything remotely close to a "gas guzzler". but yet, this felt like a good idea, despite my feelings of feeling somewhat selfish.

so where am i going with this? well, weve (americans, and the world) have been going on and on about electric vehicles (ev's) for years and years now. currenty there tons of talk about "plug in hybrids" as well as ev's. i have to ask myself, are these really a better option than the gasoline powered vehicles currently on the market?
and my educated answer is no.
gasoline is dirty, thats no secret. while im sure i could expose a few secrets (as well as enlighten myself a little) on petroleum production, im going to focus solely on the environmental cost after use.
i dont have the energy this evening to find and share statistics, but its a fact that coal fired power plants emit MANY more emissions than gasoline powered cars for the same amount of energy. (i hope that makes sense) smokestack to exhaust pipe, coal is far worse. this alone tells me that petroleum is the more conscious option.

i did a brief search for this topic, to see what others had to say. and it makes me sad to see that the most talked about issue is cost. because coal (and the power it generates) is so much cheaper than petroleum, they expect less than a us dollars worth of energy to equate to a gallon of gasoline. if price represented environmental impact than clearly, that would be the better option. but it doesnt. yes, gasoline is expensive, and it seems like the cost only rises. yes, at the rate of consumption its likely that not so distant future generations will only read about petroleum in history books. but lets face it, coal is a NONrenewable resource as well (as are our mountains). until we come up with a better source for electricity, i will scoff at the thought of production ev's.

how bad is fly ash?

from TVA's management discussion and analysis of financial condition and results of operations...

"Fly ash is a by-product of a coal-fired plant. It is a gray material with a consistency similar to flour. It is made up mostly of silica, similar to sand. Though the ash itself is inert, it may contain trace amounts of other substances that occur naturally in coal, such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and selenium. It is used in building products such as cement, mortar, stucco, and grout. It also is used in some potting soils and as a soil conditioner. TVA has sold fly ash commercially."

then go on to read a study involving CFA (coal fly ash) and rats...

"Exposure to CFA [coal fly ash] is a health concern because coal is a major power source used world wide, especially in developing countries such as China and India, and human exposure to particulate matter is associated with increased respiratory and cardiac disease.^"


here are a few articles involving CFA usage and its effects on communities.

400 residents sue Dominion, developer over fly-ash site

whats wrong on tobacco road?

angry residents grill officals about coal ash

let me know if CFA is something you want used for construction of your homes, road ways, etc.?
this is where your power comes from. coal. when its burned, it creates this ash. what do you suggest be done with it?


credit: this grandmother is clearly hard at work digging up the "dirt" (no pun intended) on CFA lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com and it reveals a whole new side of the coal issue to me daily. thank you!