Electric Cars Aren’t As Green As You Think

There’s this guy, Adam Conover, who creates videos “ruining” everything you think is great.  It’s called Adam Ruins Everything.  He’s kind of like the Freakonomics of YouTube and TruTV.  I don’t agree with everything he says, and you can’t cover most subjects properly in the amount of time that a typical YouTube video lasts.  However, he’s entertaining and makes a good point most of the time.

His latest video explains why electric cars aren’t as eco-friendly as everyone thinks.  It’s part of a larger episode about “going green“.

He makes the argument that the strategy of both driving less and driving your current car into the ground is actually more eco-friendly than buying a new car, so long as your current car is reasonably efficient.  I’m glad to know that I’ve been eco-friendly all my life.

So keep driving your non-gas-guzzling normal car for as long as you can.  Don’t make the jump to electric unless you have to buy a new car anyways, or your old car is laying down a cloud of smoke everywhere it goes.

Of course, buying a car that runs on compressed natural gas (when your old car quits) would be even better for West Virginia royalty and mineral owners.  If only we could get more CNG filling stations around.