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My friend in Seattle said my 'green' commute was actually making things worse

I was driving my hybrid 45 minutes each way to work and thought I was doing okay. She pointed out that with our local grid being mostly coal, charging at home overnight was basically just moving the pollution. She said, 'You're still burning coal, just in a different zip code.' It hit me hard. I switched to taking the bus two days a week, which adds 20 minutes to my trip but cuts my car use by 40%. It's not perfect, but it's a real change. How do you figure out the actual impact of your local energy mix on stuff like EVs or heat pumps?

2 comments

2 Comments

tessa_schmidt198d ago

Trying to figure out your local grid is a total rabbit hole... I spent a whole weekend down it and now I can't stop telling people about marginal emission rates. My friends avoid me at parties. Basically, you can look up your utility's fuel mix online, but the real-time picture gets messy. I found a site called WattTime that shows the current grid mix and when cleaner energy is available, which helped me schedule my dishwasher. It's a start, but your friend has a point about the bigger system. Good on you for taking the bus, that's a solid win no matter how you slice it.

rose_anderson408d ago

Ugh, your friend isn't wrong, but @tessa_schmidt19 is onto something with that real-time grid data. The real win is pushing for cleaner power so your EV isn't just a coal car in disguise.