I don't know about the grid, but does this thought about "plug-in" cars make sense?

There is a geopolitical benefit in no longer being dependent upon the Middle East, and there is the hope that electricity will soon be generated by cleaner means, such as hydro and nuclear.

Others believe our fleets should be changed to operate on natural gas, which we have in abundance, and which is relatively clean burning.

Yea, I just saw “Food, Inc.” and learned about the whole corn conglomerate in America. I’d rather use the corn than shipping our money out to the Middle East if possible.

Good answer, thanks.

There are many different ways of generating electricity other than burning coal.

It is a mistake to assume that electric power will be generated from coal. In the near future, and for several decades at least, electrical power will be generated from uranium. The advantages are: no carbon dioxide emissions, no sulfide emissions, and no need to send our young adults to die or be maimed fighting in political wars. The uranium will be mined and produced in Australia, Canada, and (some) the United States.

@mrrich724 I’m not really sold on the whole bio-fuel idea yet. Considering we are a planet struggling to feed everyone why would we want to divert the use of fertile land from food production to fuel production?

There is an inherent efficiency to be gained by gong electric. A typical electric motor drive is about 76–80% efficient whereas a typical gasoline engine is 35–40% and a diesel 40–45%.
You have to offset that efficiency gain a little when you consider the energy denisity of batteries is about 1/50 of gasoline. That means you need to haul around more mass which will hurt fuel economy about 10%.
Even with the mass penalty, the end result is still higher efficiency with an electric.
Cost, range, and operating life are still issues.

@RareDenver Bio-fule does not need to come from food crops. The next generation of biofuels will be from cellulose. That means anything green including grasses, dead trees, will work.

Dell has giant solar collectors in one of their Round Rock parking lots. People could, in theory, park in a space and plug in there. So, I guess the idea has some merit.

@worriedguy 35–40%? They’ve jumped a few points in the last decade then :D

With nuclear and solar on the rise, I don’t see this as an issue, especially since the pollution generated by the added strain on the power system as it currently stands would be less than the decrease in the same sort of pollutants now generated by gas-burning cars.

Oh, and contrary to popular belief, most cars don’t run well on ethanol. Ever since they switched from MBTE to E10 (10% Ethanol) damn near ever car I’ve had bogs, pings, and gets shitty gas mileage. Newer engines that are designed for E10 run on it just fine, but I’ve rarely had a car that new. Unless/until they decide to retrofit all of the current older cars to run that stuff at no expense to the car-owner, I will not be a fan of biofuels.

Emissions are concentrated at the power plant that the electricity in the grid is produced from rather than decentralized at each tail pipe. Easier to filter out bad stuff when it is all coming out of one place.

@jerv Ethanol mandates were not about clean energy, even though that’s how they sold it to the public. It is about upholding corn subsidies.

@lilikoi True, but the point remains that there is a lot of misinformation out there, and some of it is from official sources.