Hybrid cars that plug in to charge use power plant energy that use coal and use oil to create energy?confused

At least part of the energy from power plants comes from clean or renewable sources, and it has potential to become cleaner in the future as we shift our power generation. 100% of the energy made by a gasoline car comes from oil, which produces emissions and is non-renewable.

You are absolutely correct. Unless the electricity comes from non-fossil fuels, electric cars are no better than gasoline powered cars. Someone here pointed out that the generation plants are more efficient that buring the oil in the car, and that it would be better to use coal/oil to make electricity and power the car with that electricity. However, they failed to point out all the electricity lost in transmission (through resistance). This makes it more efficient to burn th oil in the car. We get very little electricty from hydroelectric, solar, and wind (less than 10% of all electricity altogether). And, we only get maybe 10% from nuclear. Until we begin generating more electricity from hydroelectric (we've already reach the limit in the US), nuclear (and, we know the risks), solar, and wind, electric cars don't make much sense.

You are not supposed to be thinking. Do what Al Gore says and stop questioning everything.

Yes you have reason to be. Burning fossil fuels in power stations converting that to electricity transmitting it ,with resulting losses, produces more CO2 than burning it inside the car. Only a very small % of E are produced from none fossil and nucleur. Take note hydro is the most destructive form of producing energy. It does destroy 1000's of km ecosystym downstream to produce a couple of meggawatt.

Coal powered electric generation plants run at the same rate day and night. Some energy is wasted at night when less is being used by customers. It would be better to have that wasted energy being used to charge vehicles. The energy could also be created from solar or wind power at your house or solar panels applied directly onto the vehicle. I plug a small panel into my cigarette lighter that can run my radio or charge the battery if I leave the lights on by mistake.

Because of the efficiency of electric engines, plug-in hybrids and electric cars produce far less greenhouse gas emissions than internal combustion engines even if the electric grid is powered mostly by fossil fuels like burning coal. Here are some numbers. PHEV = plug-in electric hybrid vehicle HEV = hybrid electric vehicle (like the Prius) EV = electric vehicle ICE = internal combustion engine "PHEVs reduce CO2 emissions by 37%-67% compared with ICEs and by 19%-54% compared with HEVs in well-to-wheels (W2W) analyses assuming fueling with gasoline and electricity from the U.S. mix of power plants (and ignoring one or two outliers in the data). PHEVs reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions too. EVs reduce CO2 by 11%-100% compared with ICEs and by 24%-54% compared with HEVs, and significantly reduce all other greenhouse gas emissions, using the U.S. grid mix. If all U.S. cars were EVs, we’d reduce global warming emissions. Using electricity strictly from coal, EVs still would reduce CO2 by 0%-59% compared with ICEs (one analysis found 0% change; six others found reductions of 17%-59%) and might produce 30%-49% more CO2 than HEVs (based on only two analyses). On the other hand, if electricity comes from solar or wind power, EVs eliminate all emissions. Using natural gas to make electricity, emissions fall in between those from coal and renewable power."

Well we could build power plants that burn corn just like those pellet stoves that are on the market. And as for hydro-electric that is worse than nuclear power. It stops the natural migration of fish and flood beautiful wild lands (example: Lake Powell). No! We need to starve the planet to get to work to push paper. What we need to do is more telecommuting and work from our energy efficient homes (heated with corn) Power to the Corn!

Yeah, I saw a cartoon to that effect the other day and did a double take myself. The hybrid car is really only better if you're plugging into a charger that uses solar power. Otherwise, you're reducing the demand for foreign oil but not helping to clean up the air from coal fired power plants.

Yes but so do oil refineries that turn the crude oil into petrol. Then the car burns even more and produces carbon monoxide whereas the hybrid car doesn't. So in the end not as much carbon monoxide is produced from the hybrid cars