Tesla Drivers Don't Be Too Smug: Electric Cars Are Not So Green Says Study

In a
new study in The Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences University of Minnesota researchers report in various
scenarios that vehicles using alternative fuels are often more
harmful to human health than are conventional gasoline-powered
automobiles. From the abstract:

We find that powering vehicles with corn ethanol or with
coal-based or “grid average” electricity increases monetized
environmental health impacts by 80% or more relative to using
conventional gasoline.

The AP
reported:

“It’s kind of hard to beat gasoline” for public and
environmental health, said study co-author Julian Marshall, an
engineering professor at the University of Minnesota. “A lot of the
technologies that we think of as being clean … are not better
than gasoline.”

Not surprsingly, the study does find that vehicles powered by
electricity derived from wind and solar power have the least health
effects. Keep in mind, however, that solar
provided 0.23 percent and wind 4.13 percent of U.S. electricity
in 2013.