I wrote about economical aspects of buying a plugin hybrid car last week and 57% of you said you would buy the car no matter what the savings are. I am sure you care about the environment, why else would you answer the poll the way you did, right? Well, if you truly care for the environment, I suggest you to rethink your decision and invest that $8000 premium money into… saving the environment. Wonder why? I will tell you in just a moment.
One of the people who commented to my blog post questioned the environmental friendliness of a plugin hybrid pointing to the fact that the car runs off of electricity produced by coal powered plants. I will also add that additional components the car has (in particular the battery) take more labor to produce which in turn adds CO2 into the atmosphere. However let’s ignore these facts for now and look into the bottom line.
Is plugin hybrid car an efficient way to save the environment?
For simplicity let’s assume that a hybrid car doesn’t consume any fuel at all and takes the same amount of labor to produce as the regular car. In that case by driving it you would save approximately 4 tons of carbon dioxide from emitting into the atmosphere each year. I estimate that the life span of a plugin hybrid car is approximately 10 years which means it would save 40 tons total.
You probably heard about Kyoto Protocol, the agreement signed by many countries with the aim to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol created a market of carbon offset certificates where companies reducing emissions get credited by companies not complying to the restrictions.
Chicago Climate Exchange acts as the main broker for the US companies volunteering to participate (unfortunately the US has not officially endorsed the agreement). Only significant emmiters are members of the exchange however the demand produced secondary market and smaller companies and individuals now can buy carbon credits as well. Here are a few reputable organizations selling carbon dioxide credits retail (all prices in US$):
| Program | Country of origin | Price per ton of CO2 |
|---|---|---|
| Atmoclear.com | US | $4 - $25 |
| Carbonfund.org | US | $4.2 |
| e-BlueHorizons | US | $5 |
| LiveNeutral | US | $6.20 |
| DrivingGreen | Ireland | $8.00 |
| TerraPass | US | $8.81 - $11 |
| NativeEnergy | US | $12 |
| CleanerClimate | UK & Australia | $15.66 |
| ZeroFootprint | Canada | $16 |
| ClimateFriendly | Australia | $18 |
At these rates, to offset 10 years worth of a gasoline car emissions you would only have to spend around $200. Just think about it. The premium you pay to buy a cleaner car can offset emissions from 40 gasoline cars! Another cool thing is you don’t have to wait till 2010 (or whenever plugin hybrids become available in mass production). You can start saving environment now!
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