|
Well, I'll be glad to bring you into the debate.
The debate is over whether or not emissions control on cars is effective. Currently emissions are regulated(the car can only produce this much to pass EPA standards). Which means that the car must have a catalytic converter to reduce the amount of Hydrocarbons and other stuff that passes out the tailpipe(In your case it would be soot released into the environment from your chimney).
My argument is that emissions control do in fact decrease emissions at the pipe(read if you want eliminate all emissions) at the cost of fuel economy.
It costs several MPG to reduce emissions and follow other procedures regarding the exhaust gases, I argue since it takes more energy to produce gas than you get out of it(but its cheaper energy(electricity)), its more eco friendly to increase MPG because it reduces the emissions by a factor of 1.25 times whatever you gain in FE(this is just for the electricity used to refine gasoline). Also Petrol refineries produce huge amounts of NOx and SOx. They are huge volumes in terms of meters cubed per hour but not very high per gallon of gas. Given that they are not very high in pollutants per gallon it could be argued that cars are 1:1 in emissions at the refinery. However this does not take into account the Coal plant that was used to produce the electricity(I agree moderately that CO2 is not a huge deal, but if we are going to talk about reducing emissions in the form of maintaining the global atmospheric conditions as are then we have to count it). The electrical plants alone are enough concern because coal waste cannot be dumped in a landfill as it damages soil conditions and water tables and is not convenient like nuclear waste in that several oil drums can contain the size of the waste. Coal waste is an enormous issue. By ton its loss obnoxious than nuclear waste, but there is not very much nuclear waste whereas coal plants produces tons per hour of hazardous waste.
Obviously there are the transport ships, trucks and pipelines as well which have not been factored in or calculated.
Anyway US coal plants pump out 37 lbs of CO2 per gallon of gas and your car can only produce 20 lbs(theoretical maximum(which means there are 0 unburned hydrocarbons coming out)). The refineries drop .2 grams of NOx per gallon and .5 grams SOx per gallon.
Now you are informed and can make a decision.
|