Automobile Pollution
Electric automobiles have been in the thought process for alternate ways of driving ever since the gasoline prices have risen over $2.50 a gallon. Electric cars produce almost no pollution at all. The E.P.A estimates that by 2050, almost everyone will be driving an electric powered car (Borensein, “E.P.A 3).
Have you ever been stuck on traffic before and seen all of those cars sitting there emitting gasses? Environmental Protection Agency wants to alter cars to reduce pollution. To get cleaner air in a car crazy country that drives more than twice as many miles as it did in the 1970’s, the E.P.A is planning something big and very costly; change the autos we drive and the fuel that we put into them (Borensein, “E.P.A 1). The rules could add as much as $200 dollars to the cost of a new car and 10 cents to a gallon of gasoline.
For years, the automobile has been view as a major cause of air pollution. But the day of the smoking tailpipe will soon be over. The Environmental Protection Agency says, "The most polluting activity an average person does everyday is drive their car" (Borensein, “E.P.A” 4). The minivan, and S.U.Vs are about to become very serious in the car pollution problem in the U.S.A. The minivan gets very bad ratings for carbon dioxide emissions. The S.U.V gets even worse emission ratings from the E.P.A (Borensein, “E.P.A” 5).
The motor-vehicle contribution to urban smog is expected to drop from about 30 percent of the total today to just 5 percent by 2030 (Dale, 3). The key component in smog is ozone, a corrosive gas that can exacerbate respiratory problems such as asthma and bronchitis. The cleanup of the new vehicles will reduce the number of bronchitis cases by more than 10,000 a year nationally; reduce respiratory failures by 173,000; and reduce childhood asthma attacks by 260,000 (Dale, 6).
Two more pollutants released through car exhaust are carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. The first reduces the...