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In a recent Wired Magazine article, S.F Mayor Wants to Make E-Cars More Common Than Cable Cars, Chuck Squatriglia cites that San Francisco Mayor, Mayor Gavin Newsom is in talks with Project Better Place to build an infrastructure that makes owning and operating an electric car real possibility in the city of San Francisco.

Citing that the city’s power supply is largely derived from renewable resources, natural gas and nuclear plants, Squatriglia poses this project as a greener alternative to the conventional means of personal travel (gasoline). Moreover, the compact geography of the city makes the electric vehicle more practical for the city’s population than perhaps other metropolitan areas like Los Angeles.

Most of our readers recall Jared Tracy’s argument that the electric car simply displaces or exacerbates the greenhouse gas emission we are desperately trying to reduce. I think that in this situation, San Francisco is onto something.

This proposal is not without its issues.  Many San Francisco residents opt out of car ownership all together and are heavy users of public transportation.  Will this project compel people to purchase a car, compounding the city’s congestion issues?  Will this actually off set energy consumption or increase it.  Or will this be used as an alternative means of offsetting single source energy for transportation?

I think its worthy of debate and its worthy of open minded consideration.  In my opinion, I think giving this project a shot might open the doors to advances in technology and innovation.  I also believe that we should not rule out the electric car as another means of transportation simply because it’s not a single, sole solution. Again, like I said before, diversity seems like the right choice. 

What do you think?

~DK