Comment Re:Kind of a biased group? (Score 3, Interesting) 559
The concern with the stated metrics is not that the electric powerplant emissions being included, but that "total footprint" includes all the way back to coal mining techniques while the total footprint of gasoline vehicles stops at the gas tank.
That's exactly what I came to say. If they are going to factor in the total cost of producing the electricity that runs the vehicle, then they need to compare that with a gas vehicle where they also include the environmental cost to extract the oil, transport the oil to a refinery, refine the oil into gasoline, transport the gas to a distributor, and then worry about the emissions of the actual vehicle consuming the fuel. Likewise, if they want to factor in the cost to manufacture the batteries and motors, then they also need to factor in the cost to manufacture the engines. It's not a meaningful comparison otherwise.