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Annotated Bibliography

Are Electric Vehicles Really Any Greener?

William Swink

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

October 19, 2017

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Annotated Bibliography

Russell, Jason. Electric Cars May Be Worse For The Environment Than Gas-Powered.

WashingtonExaminer 23 Sep 2017. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/new-study-

electric-cars-may-be-worse-for-the-environment-than-gas-powered/article/2566847

Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Electric cars are worse per mile than gasoline powered cars according to a new study

done by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This challenges the notion that EVs

are cleaner for the environment. The article states that the government still subsidizes up

to $7,500 for each EV purchased a subsidy the nation would be better off without. The

new study was carried out by four economic/business professors from UNCG, UNC,

Dartmouth College, and Middlebury College. In monetary terms, the article states, EVs

are about half a cent worse per mile for the environment than gas cars. This all depends

on where the car gets its electricity from. EVs do better in major cities than gas powered

cars due to where the energy is coming from. This means that if there is going to be a

subsidy for EVs it should be done by state and local governments because the pollution

varies. The closing of the article talks about how the electricity for those EVs comes from

somewhere and that tends to be from a coal fired power plant. I think this source has a

very relevant sense to it considering it was published in September of 2017. This helps

me to base my points on information that is up to date. As for credibility this article was

published by The Washington Examiner which is a rather large source of information in

modern media. The points are based on real research and logical statements which is my

style of writing. This source will help me to upkeep relevance in my argument and

provide real numbers.

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Wade, Lizzie. Teslas Electric Cars Arent as Green as You Might Think. Wired 31 March

2016. https://www.wired.com/2016/03/teslas-electric-cars-might-not-green-think/

Accessed 16 Oct 2017.

Starting off with the unveiling of a new Tesla, the author pitches an important question.

How green is Tesla really? This leads into the next bit of the article addressing that

Tesla cars environmental benefits may be overhyped. Talking about Devonshire Research

Group arguing that EVs create pollution and emissions in different ways than that of gas

ones. There are several stages in the life of an EV that have different impacts. These

stages consist of production, normal usage, and disposal/end of life. EVs need expensive

and rare metals to make the heavy batteries that go into them. To gain those materials

they are mined from special earth metal mines that tend to use processes that harm the

environment. Recycling batteries at the end of an EVs life is important for sustainability,

however, with large and expensive batteries that becomes increasingly difficult. The

article closes by stating EVs are not perfect and are certainly a trade off when thinking of

gas cars. To make EVs work more greenly than gas cars there needs to be a large market

and demand in order to push the technology to match consumer needs. This article helps

me to be closer to neutral in my arguments. Instead of just saying that EVs are worse than

gas cars I can point out that this may not always be true. That if there is a large enough

market for EVs that the technology will advance to match. If this occurs then at that point

in the possible future EVs will be a better option for the environment. As for credibility

of this source it comes from a large magazine called Wired. Wired is consistent in their

accuracy.