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Battery Electric Cars Will Still Need Charging

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 28, 2008

A Power Trade-Off

Regarding "U.S. Energy Policy Needs A Zap" (Commentary, June 22):

George Moon, founder of a battery manufacturing company, said that politicians and policymakers alike will find the answer to our energy problems in the "magic pill" of electric cars.

However, he failed to point out that using battery electric cars, not hybrids, require plug-in charging.

Plug-in charging means using electricity from a home or similar source. Therefore, he suggests trading high oil and gas prices for high electricity costs.

A recent Forbes article points out that since the last energy crisis in October 1973, America's oil consumption has increased 15 percent while our electricity consumption is up 115 percent due to the electric gadgets we use and larger houses which need to be lit and cooled.

According to the Edison Electric Institute, 49 percent of our country's electricity is powered by coal.

Consequently, the use of electric cars will eventually add to emissions and pollution through the smokestacks of the coal-powered electric generation plants.

While electric cars may provide a partial solution, there is no single solution to our energy issues, there are always trade offs.

GARY GRESHAM

Tampa

Electricity Still Needed

It seems that everyone has an ax to grind when it comes to our energy policy.

George Moon, as the ex-CEO of a battery company, obviously wants to sell batteries. After reading his rather lengthy column "U.S. Energy Policy Needs A Zap" (Commentary, June 22), I think he missed the point entirely.

Sure, electric cars are great and when battery technology gets to be affordable, safe and reliable, I'm going to buy one. But somebody has to generate the electricity to recharge those batteries, and therein lies the rub. I've read that to replace the entire fleet of U.S. cars and trucks with electric-powered vehicles will require that we double our present electrical generation capacity. Solar and wind can't generate sufficient amounts to do it.

Our choices will come down to coal, gas, oil or nuclear, which brings us back to the nub of the problem. All of these have their pros and cons. The debate should focus on which or how much of each kind should we use.

Forget batteries. They will have their day once the electrical capacity to recharge them is there.

LARRY ALTER

Seminole

Contest Is Too Late

Regarding "McCain's Energy Plan Calls for New Car Battery" (Business, June 24):

John McCain's battery contest is too late. There are already four lithium battery makers that can do this now; they just need orders to go from preproduction to full production.

What's really needed is good electric vehicle designs, as one can go 80 mph and get 100-mile ranges on regular golf cart lead batteries with no new technology needed.

Since Detroit won't build them because they have few parts to make money from and last forever, we need to mandate 50 mpg CAFE standards in 5 years. This can be done by bringing their European cars here and building EVs and plug-in hybrids.

And battery patents need to be watched. ChevronTexaco bought the NiMH battery patents and wouldn't let anyone build EV-size batteries, stopping EVs for 10 years. We need to make sure that doesn't happen again.

The technology is here; we just need to do it. Thousands drive EVs every day which we build ourselves; why can't Detroit build them too?

JERRY DYCUS

Riverview

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