In this week’s episode of <a href=”http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/tag/r-squared-energy-tv/”>R-Squared Energy TV</a>, I answer the following questions:
<ul>
<li>What are the chances that electric vehicles will be more than a boutique item, and will make up a noticeable portion of cars on the road by 2020?</li>
<li>Do you agree with the <a href=”http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/aswift/new_report_keystone_xl_will_in.html”>recent report</a> from the <a href=”http://www.nrdc.org/”>Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) that building the Keystone Pipeline will raise gasoline prices?</li>
</ul>
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I will make one additional comment to what I said about electric cars in the video. Even if we have adoption of electric cars in the U.S. at the most aggressive pace that has been projected, I don’t believe there will be a measurable impact on atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations for decades. After all, despite international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol, growth in atmospheric carbon dioxide is accelerating:
<p style=”text-align: center;”><a href=”http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Figure-5_11.png”><img class=”aligncenter wp-image-10829″ title=”Figure 5_1″ src=”http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Figure-5_11.png” alt=”” width=”634″ height=”490″ /></a></p>
<p style=”text-align: center;”><strong>Figure 1.</strong> Atmospheric CO2 concentrations at <a href=”http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/obop/mlo/”>Mauna Loa Observatory</a></p>
The reason for this — as has been discussed <a href=”http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/2011/10/10/why-the-debate-over-global-warming-is-academic/”>here on several occasions</a> — is that global carbon dioxide emissions are presently being driven by developing countries. If 10% of drivers in developed countries switch to electric cars it may help the energy security of those countries, but we should not harbor the illusion that this will do anything to combat climate change.
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