Composition II
English 2010-Creative Writing
Gary Howard, Associate Professor
Reflective Writing: Creative writing is just what it sounds like. You have to be creative with the words you use if you want your essays to stand out. At first I wasn't sure what I could learn from this course until Mr.Howard taught me how to paraphrase sentences in different ways so that my essays were not plagiarizing sources. This class is an excellent way to improve your writing skills.
English 2010
March 31, 2013
Large Essay #2
Since the invention of the wheel, mankind has been coming up with new and inventive ways to roam the earth. Leonardo da Vinci was creating designs and models in the 15th century for transport vehicles. Steam power, electric motors and combustion engines have paved the way for man to travel long distances in short periods of time. Steam engines powered the very first self-powered road vehicles. In 1769 Nicolas Joseph Cugnot of France built an automobile using a steam powered engine. The British Royal Automobile Club and the Automobile Club de France has since recognized it as being the first automobile invented. (inventors.about.com) However, steam powered vehicles would not live long compared to the electric and internal combustion engines being invented. Now the question is, how have cars effected our environment, and what can we expect in terms of pollution for the future?
Electric cars are technically not any newer than gas powered cars. From the 1830s until the 1920s, the electric car was neck and neck with the gas car. It is uncertain who invented the first electric automobile due to several inventors having been given credit for the invention. Some of them are, Anyos Jedlik, a Hungarian, who invented a small scale model car powered by an electric motor in 1828, and Robert Anderson of Scotland who invented a crude electric power carriage between 1832 and 1839. (inventors.about.com)
New York City was the first to employ the use of electric cars for commercial use in 1897. They were taxis built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. According to legal documents the first registered owner of an electric car was E.W. Rice of General Electric. Prior to the 1800s different types of fuel were used by inventors in developing internal combustion engines. In 1807, Francois Isaac de Rivaz of Switzerland invented the first internal combustion engine using a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen for fuel. (inventors.about.com)
Jean JosephEtienne Lenoir a Belgian born engineer invented a double acting; electric spark-ignition internal combustion engine fueled by coal gas in 1858 and was patented in 1860. On January 29, 1886, Karl Benz received the first patent for a gas fueled car and has been credited for building the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine and the first to invent, design and integrate both together the internal combustion engine and chassis. Eventually cheaper gas, mass production and the need for a longer range vehicle spelled the end of the electric car. (inventors.about.com)
“Studies of the sources of air pollution have shown that transportation accounts for the majority of nitrogen oxide (54%) and carbon monoxide (89%) emissions in the United States. Furthermore, internal combustion engines are also believed to be one of the largest single sources of carbon dioxide (28%) emissions”. (usatoday30.usatoday.com) Electric vehicles require much less maintenance and convert about 59-62% of the electrical energy from the grid to power at the wheels, while conventional gasoline vehicles only convert about 17-21% of the energy stored in gasoline to power at the wheels. A study conducted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power found that electric vehicles would reduce emissions substantially over 100,000 miles, producing just 75 pounds of pollutants, compared to the gas engines 3,008 lbs. of pollutants and the California Air Research Board estimates that electric vehicles will produce more than 90% lower emissions than the equivalent gas engine. (www.ehow.com)
The average range for electric car is around 50 miles although some high-end EVs can go about a 100 - 200 miles before recharging. The current research of electric vehicles smash the gas engines in terms of pollution. EVs emit no tailpipe pollutants and provide a quiet, smooth operation with stronger acceleration. There are no oil changes or tune-ups and part failures associated with belts, hoses and cooling systems are virtually eliminated from the motor design. In terms of efficiency, emissions and durability, the electric car has a clear advantage over the gas vehicle. (www.fueleconomy.gov)
Gas powered cars have dominated our roads since the early 1900s. There are no average approximate price ranges for a gas powered car due to the high number of used vehicles on the market and the availability of style and design is unlimited. Some gasoline vehicles can travel over 300 miles before refueling and newer conventional gas powered cars still cost less than their newer counterparts and use technology that has been around for more than a century and refined over the years. The cost of maintenance and repair to gas cars is cheaper than their newer counterparts due to the mass availability of technology and parts. The biggest advantage of gas cars is that they have much more raw power in terms of horsepower and they continue to become even more powerful as they are refined to be more fuel-efficient. (www.ehow.com)
The main concern with electric cars has been the source of the electricity used to charge them. Clean energy sources like wind and hydroelectric power will produce very little pollution, while one charged with energy from an unclean source, like coal or oil, may produce more pollution than an internal combustion engine vehicle. According to a new study published in the journal of Environmental Science and Technology, it turns out that the use of electric vehicles may not be that clean after all, particularly in the world's most populated country, China. About 85% of the country's electricity is powered by fossil fuels, of which 95% is coal. “China has a large population that lives near these coal power plants, emissions from the plants affect nearby humans almost 4 times as much as gas operated cars”. (www.usnews.com) There are now 100 million electric bikes on China's roads, and they outnumber gas-powered cars 2-to-1. Due to the pollution from electricity-generating power plants, kilometer per kilometer, electric cars in China beat out conventional vehicles as among the worst environmental polluters. (healthland.time.com)
Coal accounts for only about 55% of American electric power, while cleaner natural gas and nuclear energy accounts for about 20% each. Coal accounts for about 49% of electricity generated in Germany. American coal plants are cleaner than the Chinese ones, and America has relatively few people who live near power plants. New York City's energy resources are primarily natural gas, hydropower, and nuclear energy and recently wind power. Despite their efforts to use clean sources of energy New York City still fails to meet federal standards for ozone levels. New Yorkers have been estimated to buy over 380,000 gallons of gasoline per year. Electric cars would dramatically reduce that amount and lower their carbon emissions substantially. (www.nyc.gov)
California derives only about 20% of its electricity from sources like coal and oil. California's primary sources of electricity are natural gas-burning power plants and hydroelectric generators. A study from the Natural Resources Defense Council and Environmental Defense Fund indicates that the replacement of all internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles in the Los Angeles Basin may cause reductions of between 37% and 99% in all categories of transportation related pollutants except for sulfur oxides. This is because there is very little coal-fired electricity used in Los Angeles. (usatoday30.usatoday.com)
In conclusion the US government maintains a strict testing schedule for electric power plants, making sure that they comply with emissions standards once a month. America relies less heavily on fossil fuels than other countries, but we must continue to use clean sources of energy like natural gas burning plants, hydroelectric and wind power, as well as solar energy to provide electricity for an ever-growing society dependent on vehicles for everyday use and brake oil’s stranglehold on the transportation sector. Electrifying our transportation system in the next century is one of the surer ways to improve the environment as well as reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil. (www.nytimes.com) A major downfall of the electric vehicle has been a lack of performance and reduced driving range but in terms of efficiency, emissions and durability, the electric car has a clear advantage over the gas vehicle, although the edge in performance still goes to the gas car.
Works Cited
"Drive Electric NYC." Drive Electric NYC. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
"Electric Vehicles." Electric Vehicles. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
"Electric Vehicles Would Reduce Pollution." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 May 1990. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
Hartman, Dennis. "The Advantages of Gas Powered Cars." EHow. Demand Media, 25 Feb. 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
Hartman, Dennis. "Gas-Powered Cars vs. Electric-Powered Cars." EHow. Demand Media, 26 Apr. 2010. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
"History of Electric Vehicles." About.com Inventors. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
"The History of the Automobile - Gas Engines." The History of the Automobile - Gas Engines. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
Park, Alice, and Alice Park. "Why Electric Cars Are More Polluting than Gas Guzzlers." Time. Time, n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
"Plug-in Cars Could Actually Increase Air Pollution - USATODAY.com." Plug-in Cars Could Actually Increase Air Pollution - USATODAY.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.
Sallings, Lee. "Electric vs. Gas Cars." EHow. Demand Media, 24 Sept. 2009. Web. 01 Apr. 2013.