Powerful politician buys her own electric car
Åslaug Haga is not only the Petroleum and Energy Minister in Norway, but she is also the chief of the ruling Center Party. As such, she is a powerful politician in a country known both for its progressiveness and a large oil industry. Perhaps it is only a little surprising then that her latest car purchase was a Th!nk electric vehicle. Not that a politician can't be an environmentalist. And indeed, during this election season, we here in America have been made well aware of the hybrid choices of some our own Presidential hopefuls. It could be that Ms. Haga, who doesn't have the greenest of reputations amongst the folk of the fjords, is spending a her hard-earned kroner on both transportation and public relations. The Norwegian government no longer supplies its ministers with cars since a little brouhaha over the issue a couple of years ago.
According to Cobos over at the Tesla Motors Club forum, from whose post I originally learned of this story at Oblad.no, since Haga is buying one of the first Th!nks off the line, the minister is receiving a certificate numbered 0001from the EV Association of Norway which says, "all EVs in Norway run on hydroelectric".
Whatever her motivation, I sincerely hopes she enjoys her new coal- and oil-free EV.
[Source: Oblad.no via user Cobos at Tesla Motors Club forum]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KarenRei 3:03PM (2/25/2008)
Not like hydropower is eco-friendly. It destroys the ecology of rivers, floods incredibly scenic land, is very space-wasteful (acres per MW) in comparison to almost every other kind of power (including solar and wind), and even leads to global warming (organic matter decaying in a river releases CO2, while organic matter decaying in a reservoir releases much more potent CH4.)
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Domenick 3:32PM (2/25/2008)
I'm not too keen on new dams myself but it seems like they already have them built so....it beats burning coal and oil. Anyway. I believe they are now embarking on major wind projects as well.
http://www.scandoil.com/moxie-bm2/alternative_energy/wind/oil-power-norway-puts-1b-on-wind-power.shtml
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Lad 3:52PM (2/25/2008)
Forgive me but I have this image of Vice President Cheney standing in front of an electric "Think" extolling it ventures... LOL. Then I remembered he's a member of our Oil Government and he and his shotgun wouldn't fit inside anyway...Oh Well!
Well anyway; any form of power generation is better than burning fossil fuels even though they all create some form of environmental pollution. Even Wind is said to interrupt bird habitat.
But these methods of generation are but interim solutions to the final answer of Solar Heat and Light Power Generation. It may take another twenty years for Solar to cut through the politics and greed. But, it will happen and the sooner the better for the whole world.
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KarenRei 4:01PM (2/25/2008)
"Even Wind is said to interrupt bird habitat."
And it's way, way overstated. There's nothing overstated about the damage a dam does to the environment.
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eddy 5:51PM (2/25/2008)
If you already have a dam you should use it. Norway generates its complete electrical power with hydro and produces much more than what would be needed for normal living. If you want to use regenerative energy you should always think of the dimensions your power generating systems would need to deliver enough power: One windmill is perhaps not that bad for the environment, but what would 30.000 windmills do ? You will always have an impact to environment with technology or even without technology. What you need to do is getting a good trade-off until you have a real solution. And because we still don't have efficient solar cells, working Fusion reactors or investors for solar-thermal projects like DESERTEC, hydro is still the best we have.
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Maytag 6:11PM (2/25/2008)
OK, so all cars are evil, but I think she's actually standing in front of a Kewet Buddy, http://www.elbilnorge.no, not a Th!nk. While the next gen Th!nk is said to be pretty sophisticated, it's not yet in production. The Buddy has been available for quite some time.
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Domenick 7:16PM (2/25/2008)
Yes, Maytag, that is a Kewet Buddy she is standing in front of. I think it belongs to the elbilnorge guy handing her the certificate. The post at Tesla Motors forum said her doesn't take delivery until March or April.
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Tormod Henne 5:03AM (2/26/2008)
"There's nothing overstated about the damage a dam does to the environment."
Most Norwegian dams are located above the timber line on bare rock and there is very little biomass that is submerged. Also, many of the reservoirs are existing lakes where the downstream is simply redirected. While you may argu that a dry or reduced river is not pretty, the methane problem does certainly not apply. The alternative is a zillion tons of extra co2.
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brian276 6:38AM (2/26/2008)
Actually this is fatally flawed- Norway is not in the European Union -isolationists that they are (its 'cause they don't want to share their sweet, sweet fishing stocks among other reaseons)
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