Comments about ‘Councilman wants Salt Lake City to accommodate recharging electric cars’

This would be a good first step if it can become economically feasible. Another major problem, however, is the time it requires to recharge the batteries.

In some very cold areas there are already plug-ins available for motorists to use.

In one community, providing them is up to the merchant and is viewed as an incentive to come to their store. They are reserved for certain stores and those who have pluf-in. They are signed somewhat like the handicapped spaces and there seemed to be a similar number.

I do not know if the city mandated these special parking areas or not, but there seemed to be areas that didn't have the plug-in spaces. One place I noticed there was a double plug and an extension cord that went over to the next car. I don't know who paid for the power, but I suspect it was the store owner as the percieved benificary of having the customer come to his store.

As we are talking about adding outlets, maybe those alternatives should be discussed.

Great ideas, but for private enterprise.

Also, I trust all the electric car people are getting busy advocating FOR construction of power plants and electrical distribution lines. THey better not be hypocrites demanding the government provide them free "clean electricity" so they can drive their electric cars to the protests against power plants.

Don't tell me about windmills- they only work on some windy days, and if the wind is not blowing, then these folks better not be charging their cars unless they like coal or nuclear fired power plants.

Lets make sure that Fed and State taxes are collected so that the Elecs pay there fair share for road construction and maintainance.

@ Who is Paying? -- please note that government invested and paved the way for new technologies and initiatives throughout our history, from the Louisiana Purchase to the building of the transcontinental railroad to the Eisenhower Administration's highway system. Without these government investments and programs, America's industry and quaility of life would not be what it is today.

Installing plug outlets for the next generation of cars follows this great tradition. And with GM's only promising innovation that may save the company is its electric Volt, we should see this as an investment in America's future!

As for wind only working on some windy days, there are many places where the wind blows everyday, consistently like in Spanish Fork, in Summit County, and Milford Utah (where one of the largest wind projects in nation is now developing its first phase). Whether you like it or not, coal is a finite resource that we in Utah have to dig deeper to get, and many coal mines are closing up because the coal is just not economical to harvest -- not to mention deaths that can occur when coal companies try to cut costs on Utah miner safety.

Local air quality at the expense of mining, coal-fired power, and toxic metals-- not a very good trade-off, is it?

Electricity in Utah comes from burning coal, so these rechargable cars are essentially coal-fired.

The batteries require mining of lead and production of sulfuric acid, and must be recycled (but often are not).

The U.S. has a 250+ years supply of coal. It's cheap and abundant.

The future of transportation is NOT battery-powered cars. It's not ecologically sustainable or smart, and darned inconvenient.

Old Boy Scout rule; leave the place better than you found it.

I'd like to see even more incentives to promote these types of technologies.
Why not add a 1/10th of one penny more to the gasoline tax and re-invest it into the new infustructure?
This would completely unnoticeable at the gas pump. It is also a very fair and proportionally equitable way for those who use and consume the most gasoline to off-set those yerning to magnify their stewardship of the earth and help future generations.

I like the councilman to accomodate my nitro burning funny car too.

Who is Paying needs to do some more homework. He/she implies that electric cars should use only clean power, to avoid being hypocritical.

If he were to study the issue in more depth, he would find that electric vehicles using power from even coal burning power plants, have a very much smaller environmental impact than internal cumbustion vehicles.

Sorry to say it, but this is pursuit of a dead-end technology. Research is already underway on breakthroughs that will increase both the range of electric cars and the speed with which batteries can be recharged. However, until those breakthroughs become commercially viable, electric cars will remain nothing more than a curiosity. A few "Charge up here" parking meters will be insufficient to change that.

In 1996, GMC began manufacturing electric cars. California was mandated to develop a car with zero emissions. Que paso? For those of you who dont know what que paso means, it means what happened?

I want to know Who Killed the Electric Car(s)? And I want them brought to justice!
Much like the banking, real estate, stock market and credit card industry, greed has caused an economic crisis. Those who are greedy lose sight of what is important.

The almighty dollar has blinded the greedy as to what is important. Ask yourself this question: Are people more important than things, or are things more important than people? All too often things have become more important than people. The most important things in life are not things. Thus, if the minds of most Americans do not change, we are headed for an economic collapse and environmental disaster. Many have lost thousands. Many are losing hope.

Thank God we have a president who has brought back hope and that president Bush was finally convinced climate change is real.

Auto dealers that sell electric cars should provide electric outlets for electric cars they market and sell.

Gasoline services stations, ought to be laws, required to maintain certain numbers of electric outlets to recharge electric cars. Remember, there are already state laws that require services station to maintain by permits certain numbers of gas pumps, rest rooms and fuel storage.

Grocery stores are an excellent place to install electric plug-ins to recharge electric cars. The electric cars recharge while shopping.

Malls, museums, zoos are also excellent locations.

This is a economic spin-off for parking lots owners to designate parking spaces for electric cars to recharge at the same to collect rent for parking.

As for the state government, construction incentives can be applied to business owners for constructing and installing electric plug-in for the purpose of recharging electric cars.

We know state governments already provide masses of incentives to businesses. State governments can apply the same principle to the construction of electric plug-ins as it does with other business incentives already in practice. This ideal is not new.

I would like to see Utah make the first move in the right direction.

This should be interesting. Saw an owner of such a vehicle get out, unroll his power line and plug it into an outdoor receptacle of a retail store, and then he walked over to an adjoining cafe to get lunch. Did he pay for his power drain, I doubt it. Of course that power had to come from one of those terrible power plants. But hey, we will have those beautiful wind mills that kill the migrating birds in the spring, and throw wonderful ice chucks during the winter, if they are able to function, that is, and have yet to prove that they are cost effective. If you can afford to cover the cost of solar panels, you will not live long enough to really realize a return for the cost. Expensive to maintain and susceptible to all kinds of weather conditions. Funny thing about power of any kind, it can't be stored, too much and you suffer the surge, too little, well, just power up the generator that uses that demon gasoline.

No one thought hybrids would make sense ten years ago. Now we have 1.3 million in the USA. Almost 100% of lead acid batteries are re-cycled. I grew up in Ogden and now live in Mass. When I travel back the pollution is just sickening. Electric cars, bikes, motorcycles, etc will make it as it just makes good sense.

We need to always remember that the government is us. Every doller it spends comes from us. Lots of people what the government to take care of everything without affecting them. That can't happen. If we want more from the government then it will take more from us.

We need a through examination for what's cost for the move? respected to "Money" and "Green Gas". Currently, it is stupid to make such change, because 1)you still need the "BAD RESOURCE" to create power, 2)the cost of the battery (initial purchase plus maintenance) does not make sense.

IT is a BAD call.

Ever been to Wyoming. They have plugs all over the place. Granted Wyoming isn't big into renewable energy & electric cars (which is strange because it is the windiest place I've ever been to). They use them for block heaters to plug in. It isn't that hard or expensive, it just takes people willing to do it. Change & technology isn't an overnight process. It is nice to see a step in the right direction, even if it only token at best. The people who chant the chep energy mantra are greedy & short sighted. Not that I don't want cheap energy, but I would like to do everything possible to make the world better. I don't want to go broke doing it & a couple extra buck here & there would be worth it to me. Law changes would make home energy production more profitable for home owners. It is just that the power utility has a stranglehold on the legislator & so change will never happen. Go figure.

That would be fantastic. I am building a electric Porsche and was always concerned about commuting to Salt Lake from Bountiful. This would be my solution for the commute. I would hope that this proposal goes threw.

One can either stick their heads in the sand and go back to their caves.

Others might like to look into this more.
GM built the EV-1 back in the 90's and the big oil companies not only lobby'ed the demise of GM manufacturing it, but bought every single one of them back -- and had them destroyed!!!

A Chinese company {BYD} introduced an all electric car at the Jan. 2009 North American Auto Show in Detroit beating both Chevy and Toyota to the punch.
Similar in size and shape to the Toyota Camry called the F3DM.

BYD has funding from Warren Buffett -- He tried several years ago for Detroit to work with him, they blew him off, so he went to the only ones who'd listen -- China!

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but has anyone considered what it will do to the power grid when we suddenly start plugging electric cars in all over the place. These things take a lot of electricity to charge. If the city provides the outlets, who pays for the charge? The government has told us that the grid infrastructure is in need of updating. Can the grid handle an increase in the electrical load? California has already had many rolling brown outs last year alone because of the strain on the grid. Everyone agees we rely too much on coal firing plants to generate electricty which pollutes the air. So which is worse, pollution from cars, or pollution from the coal plants? Maybe we should invest in the grid and reductions in coal plants then go after the electric cars. Just a thought.