Hacker News Reader

Do cars typically run on plastic and fertilizer where you're from? If it's true that a Volt can drive 25ish miles on the electricity used to refine a gallon of gas, then substituting electric miles for gas ones is a wash in terms of net electricity usage. Or are you trying to say something more subtle that I'm just missing?

View on HN

If this is independent of the refining into gas, then all's well with your math.

I think we agree ... that if there's less gas being refined, then there's less energy being used to do that ... if and only if gas refining is independent of refining into all the other products. If, on the other hand, refining into the other products efficiently ends up making gas anyway, then that's different.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com