Studies gauging the impact that electric and electrified cars have had on the environment aren’t all that common, but this pilot program put in motion at NASA’s Kenedy Space Center has some intriguing findings to present.
They specifically looked at greenhouse gas emissions and “The numbers are 10 times better than we thought we’d ever see,” according to Frank Kline, a member of Kennedy’s Sustainability office, who added that “no one’s ever done a pilot where you get actual numbers. It’s always been estimates only.”
Currently, there are ten Kennedy base employees actively involved in the program. They commute every day via (an unspecified) electric car (possibly Chevy’s Volt) and charge at the space center for free.
Mr. Kline explained that “The average car puts out about a pound of carbon dioxide per mile,” and that they’re “reducing that by 3/5ths by letting you plug in.” He went on to say “The numbers are really insane. The program’s first three months only cost $148, and we eliminated over 15,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Over a whole year, we’ll save over 60,000 pounds and that’s just with 10 drivers.”
The facility currently employs around 8,000 people, and if they all commuted in the same green manner, it would have a big impact both on combined emissions and budget, according to the data revealed here.
As reported by RedOrbit, NASA, as a whole, is under presidential order to cut greenhouse gases, and their current goal is to drop their current total emissions figure by 12.3 percent by the turn of the decade – this is one way they want to achieve that, but it could have additional ramifications in proving the real effectiveness of EVs in particular, but also other electrified models too.
By Andrei Nedelea
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