Using calculations from think tank Third Way, Amy puts forth the CO2 emissions saved by each Tesla electric car to the CO2 savings of other sources of energy, as seen below. The conclusion is that “electric cars, and one company in that category (Tesla), are but one highly dependent piece of the puzzle in addressing climate change.” Their shortcomings are bigger than advertised. For example, there are a ton of GHG emissions in the electric car manufacturing process, including batteries, that routinely gets ignored by their sellers and promoters. This is something the International Energy Agency has been trying to bring to our attention for many years now.
It’s therefore just as clear that oil and natural gas solutions will remain integral to our mission to cut GHG emissions and combat climate change. They have to be: for as far as our Department of Energy’s National Energy Modeling System forecasts (now until 2050), oil and gas will still supply the bulk of our energy. Fortunately and undeniably, U.S. oil and natural gas have already proven to be part of the climate solution, with non-stop technological evolution at the heart of their ongoing success.
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