My apologies - this is an international forum and I spoke in American realities - see post #122.

Three projects I listed (Solyndra, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt) were enthusiastically supported and heavily subsidized by current USA administration. Solyndra imploded in most spectacularly public fashion and the White House quietly withdrew the support for electric cars last month to spare themselves more embarrassment in the election year.

Electricity does not come from nowhere, fuel is consumed somewhere in the process. Even if it is solar power, the panels are made from photovoltaic cells, which require high temperature (electric) furnaces to grow the monocrystalline silicon, and some sort of structural support, usually made of metal (say hello to iron blast furnaces and associated NO2 emissions or aluminum electrolytic cells and associated emissions of HF and - gasp - CO2, the very emission we strive to eliminate). We can follow the trail down to the lump of coal needed to produce electricity to air-condition the office where poor sleep-deprived geeks designed aforementioned photovoltaic cells, but you already get the picture.

In other words, there is no guilt-free way to conduct the business of living, even commuting by bike - see above description of where the metal comes from. As far as energy conversion efficiency is concerned, muscles are pretty darn close to electricity generation.

All we can do is to recycle religiously, be very suspicious of next be-green-feel-good bleeding heart messiah and his/hers true motives, employ critical thinking and be honest with ourselves. I commute to curb middle-age spread and to purchase one less gallon of fuel from people whose ideology I despise. Therefore it could be said that I commute out of vanity and contempt.

Ride safe and good luck.

SF