Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 30, 1994 TAG: 9406070048
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
We exaggerate. At a top speed in the 60-mph range and with 20-mph averages on some race days, the team won't be rocketing anywhere. It will be ... pressing? Pushing? Laboring!
It will be laboring toward a transportation future less reliant on polluting, import-dependent carbon-based fuels.
Solar-powered vehicles for plain folks are in the distant future, though, a reality the team would readily concede. What is approaching is a practical electric vehicle that will have the power and range to satisfy our demand for mobility while cutting harmful emissions.
EVs will have their drawbacks, of course, not the least of which is that generating the electricity to charge their batteries causes pollution, too. But urban air would be cleaner because EVs produce no tailpipe emissions. And if their batteries are charged overnight - likely, since this will take as long as eight hours - electric companies might be able to handle the extra demand without adding capacity for years to come.
By then, researchers hope, the vehicles will be powered by some kind of renewable source.
Such a result not only would reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, it would slash the nation's dangerous dependence on oil, much of it coming from unstable foreign countries. Government policy can push us faster toward that situation, and should - starting with higher taxes on gasoline to raise its price to more realistically reflect its costs.
by CNB