Greening the Detroit Bailout
Detroit’s request for a bailout presents the Obama administration with an opportunity to “put its money where its mouth is.” President-elect Obama’s pledge to advance the dual goals of energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions can be advanced by imposing the following condition on the Detroit bailout: insist that Detroit commit to development of plug-in electric hybrid cars.
As Thomas Friedman notes in his outstanding new book Hot, Flat and Crowded, electric plug-in hybrid cars “have the potential to make a huge impact on lowering energy demand, promoting renewable energy and reducing carbon emissions.” (You can add making Detroit competitive to the list of reasons for moving toward plug-in hybrid cars.)
Friedman’s argument is impregnable. Approximately 30 percent of GHG emissions come from the transportation sector, so weaning our vehicles off gasoline could make a big difference. Conceptually, plug-in hybrids would be all-electric; that is, they would be powered entirely by electricity from the grid. Thus, converting to plug-in hybrids would dramatically shift the US away from dependence on foreign oil.
You may ask: Given that 50 percent of the electricity on our grid is derived from coal, and given that plug-in hybrids simply utilize electricity from the grid, why would plug-in hybrids reduce GHG emissions? The answer: electricity coming from coal translates to less GHG emission than gasoline! According to Friedman:
That’s right -- it is cleaner and greener, as well as being much cheaper, to generate electricity even from coal and convert that electricity into the motive force necessary to propel your car than to combust gasoline in the vehicle’s internal combustion engine. The reason is that, from well to wheels, an electricity-powered system has far fewer energy losses along the way than a gasoline-fueled system, when you include all the losses in the gasoline system from oil extraction, transportation, refining and distribution of the gas -- plus the lower efficiency of an internal combustion engine.
Hot Flat & Crowded, at 291.
But why should Obama commingle the goals of the Detroit bailout (i.e., survival of the US auto industry and the 3 million jobs that depend on it) with the goals of energy independence and reducing GHG emissions? Because they intersect: Plug-in hybrids offer Detroit an opportunity to regain its competitive edge over foreign imports. Based on the success of Toyota’s Prius in the US, plug-in hybrids are likely to appeal to the increasingly green-leaning Americans. In addition to demonstrating their environmental creds, plug-in hybrid purchasers will be demonstrating their patriotism by buying US products and freeing us from addition to foreign oil. Finally, pushing the development of plug-in hybrids advances the goal of creating those “green jobs” we keep hearing about, and creating them in Michigan where unemployment currently hovers at 9 percent.
