Our disingenuous man in San José

From Nacion.com, a newspaper in Costa Rica:

Here is some good news for the citizens of San José: in the future you are going to find your city a little quieter and the air less polluted and cleaner. Why? Because the Swiss and British ambassadors have just bought electric cars to use for routine trips in the city.

...[the cars], being electric, don't generate emissions.

That last bit ain't true, electric cars merely displacing emissions from the exhaust to the power station.

Comments

[fred]

Just think of them as coal powered.

[Liam]

With such drastic pollution reduction taking place in Costa Rica the ubiquitous smell of kerosene, diesel and wood-fire soot must be wafting across from Nicaragua.

[Paul van Egmond]

Disingenuous? A notion about potts and kettles comes to mind...

[harrywr2]

"That last bit ain't true, electric cars merely displacing emissions from the exhaust to the power station."

Costa Rica gets 85% of its electricity from Hydro and Geothermal.
http://www.grupoice.com/esp/ele/planinf/docum/datosgenerales_ele_dic2007.pdf

[John R T]

Grupo ICE data, from December 2007, found at the link above {thank you, harrywr2} suggest less than 85% Hydro/Geothermal supply, at that date.

More recently,
http://www.grupoice.com/esp/ele/planinf/docum/plan_expansion_generacion_09.pdf
offers analysis from the Costa Rican monopoly:

Plan de Expansión de la Generación Eléctrica 2010-2021 page 46

´Las consideraciones anteriores plantean un reto para el futuro energético. De continuar este panorama, el país podría verse forzado a cambiar su política energética basada en renovables, y modificar drásticamente la conformación de las nuevas adiciones de capacidad, utilizando combustibles fósiles.
El análisis de las tecnologías térmicas nuevas para el sistema eléctrico nacional es necesario para valorar el impacto de las políticas energéticas y la problemática arriba explicada alrededor de las fuentes renovables.´

[John R T]

For an energy industry over-view on transport options, I recommend:

http://blogs.shell.com/climatechange/2010/06/sustainable-mobility-walking-before-running-is-always-best/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+shell%2FlloC+(David+Hone+Climate+Change+Blog)