Green solutions for the guilt-stricken driver - Haaretz

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Sat., August 11, 2007 Av 27, 5767

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Green solutions for the guilt-stricken driver

By Avivit Shein

We don't need to elaborate on the convenience of having your own car. You are your own master. You can go wherever you please, whenever you please, social conventions allowing. Yet some feel that the use of private cars has spiraled out of control.

About two million vehicles travel Israel's roads every day. According to the Israel Union for Environmental Defense, the nation's vehicles travel 41.7 billion kilometers each year. These vehicles are responsible for 98.16 percent of all carbon monoxide emissions in the country and cause grave harm to the environment and to the public's health as well.

Not convinced? Think of Yom Kippur, a 24-hour period when nothing but the odd ambulance and nonconformist moves on the roads. Smog plummets by 80 percent, only to rise when night falls.

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Both diesel and regular gasoline engines emit carbon dioxide, diesel being the slightly lesser offender. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and is one of the causes of global warming. But diesel is the worse hazard because it also causes particle emission. Less than 15 percent of Israel's vehicles use diesel but they cause 90 percent of the particle emission, which is a direct hazard to health.

Why don't Israelis adopt "greener" cars? A decade ago, General Motors piloted several models of electric cars in California. The operation succeeded but the patient died. Though the cars received glowing reviews, in 1999, after just three years, GM discontinued the trial and chopped the surviving cars. That year it also started selling the Hummer.

The reason it abandoned the environmentally-friendly technology apparently had nothing to do with user satisfaction or desires. The electric cars reached speeds of 128 km per hour, and the battery could last 200 km before it had to be recharged. The real reasons, charges Chris Paine in his movie "Who Killed the Electric Car," were the political and economic considerations of Big Oil, the Republican administration, the Detroit lobby and naturally, GM.

Yet there's an upside to the story, because change has begun. Carmakers and the powers in business and government may not be changing willingly, but growing public pressure is impacting. There are more solutions to pollution, though not all are locally available. How can you drive more greenly?

The newer a car, the less emissions it releases. Buy a technologically advanced vehicle that emits less, and preferably a small one, which is more economical on fuel.

Cars are expensive in Israel but Avi Moshel, vehicular emissions supervisor at the Environmental Protection Ministry, says a plan is taking shape to make new cars more affordable. Car owners will get NIS 3,000 from the state in exchange for having their clunker towed away.

Electric vehicles pollute less than gasoline-powered cars, require hardly any tune-ups or spare parts, and are cheap to maintain. Yet Israel has no electric cars, mainly because of regulatory hurdles. Also, people worldwide are less than charmed by their limited range. Their batteries run out too soon. Yet Haim Karo, manager of EcoMotors Electric Vehicles, has managed to import electric scooters made by EVT, of Taiwan, pioneers in electric scooters. The company points out that when you buy the scooter, for about NIS 10,000, you can charge the battery anywhere you choose using a regular electrical socket - at home or at work. Their range is about 50 km between recharges.

The scooters are practically silent and create no emissions. Moreover, sales tax on them has been slashed from 47 percent to 7 percent. Next year the next generation of faster scooters, with lithium batteries, should negotiations arriving.

Hybrids are less noisy and dirty than regular cars, and they're more economical on fuel use. Two models are sold in Israel, the Toyota Prius and the Honda Civic IMA.

These cars boast a combo gasoline/electrical engine. In the Prius, for example, the electrical motor takes over from the gasoline one when igniting, driving slowly in the city or when sitting in traffic. The gasoline engine kicks in when more aggressive motion is required. The battery recharges when braking or cruising.

The cars are economical on fuel mainly in the cities. The gasoline engine turns off at every red light and ignites when you accelerate. TheMarker found that the savings from driving 20,000 km in a hybrid Honda Civic, compared with a regular one, amounts to NIS 2,369.

Hybrid technology is costly, but here, too, you get a tax break: 30 percent instead of 84 percent on regular cars.

The use of biodiesel or ethanol helps lower smog levels, to a degree. Biodiesel is made from vegetable or animal fats, including used oil from felafel stands, for instance, and can be used by diesel engines.

Ethanol is a form of alcohol derived from sugars, and suits gasoline engines. When these fuels are burned, the amount of carbon dioxide released is the same as the plants absorbed while growing. Therefore, biodiesels do not exacerbate global warming. These fuels don't create particle emissions, either, but they do emit other harmful gases.

In other words, biodiesel and ethanol are better than gasoline or diesel, but they won't save the planet.

By the way, before you "fill'er" up with either, find out whether your car's engine can use them. This is not information that carmakers publish, and use of the fuels can void guarantees. In Israel, insurers balk at their use as well. Before their use can become widespread, regulatory changes need to be instituted, which will take time. By today's standards, 5 percent of the fuel in diesel engines may be of alternative origin, but there's no standard for how much ethanol gasoline engines may use.

Elsewhere, used (and filtered) oil for fish'n'chip shops is commonly used in cars that have been kitted out with converters. You could reach some arrangement with a local felafel shop and spare us the discarded oil, too. The Union for Environmental Defense points out that it's a good lubricant.

Using liquefied petroleum gas pollutes less than using gasoline or diesel because it causes no particle emissions.

This said, it does emit carbon dioxide. It's also cheaper than gasoline and diesel, because it isn't taxed and costs NIS 3 per liter.

Environmentally speaking, it's better used by old cars made before 1995. Newer models pollute less with gasoline than they would with LPG.

"Converting cars made before 1995 that travel on 95-octane, by installing catalytic converters which reduce pollution to LPG, doesn't significantly change the pollution level of the car, but it can be cheaper for the user," says Moshel.

In other words, you'd have to convert your car at a garage, at a cost of about NIS 8,000. You could still use gasoline or diesel, and shift to LPG at the press of a button.

About 27 gas stations today supply LPG. The list is on the National Infrastructures Ministry's Web site.

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