Norway is leading the conversion to electric cars.

Norway is exceeding its own expectations in converting to electric cars and is well ahead of every other country in converting fossil fuel energy to electricity.   Norway's goal had been 50,000 electric cars by the end of 2017.   Instead, they already up to 66,000 by the end of September 2015.

That may not sound like a lot of cars by U.S. standards, but Norway's population is just over 5 million.  The U.S. equivalent would be 3.8 million electric cars.    That's a lot of Leafs, folks !

How are they doing it?   First, they are not bogged down by climate-denying politicians bought off by oil industry lobbyists.   As Lars Andreas Lunde, a Conservative Party politician, put it: “It has to be more expensive to pollute than to use environmentally friendly fuels.”   Can you believe this came from a conservative politician ?!?!? 

Norway is one of those democratic socialist countries that Bernie Sanders wants to emulate.  Their political climate is vastly different from ours:  less influenced by money and corporate lobbyists.  In fact, Norway is the 7th biggest oil exporter in the world;  but their system of government doesn't make politicians depend on corporate money to win elections.  They put people first.

So the government provides incentives to buy electric cars by making them exempt from the high sales tax and registration taxes imposed on other vehicles that can amount to more than ten thousand dollars.

The other big factor comes from Norway's natural environment.   The electricity for recharging the batteries in electric cars has to come from somewhere.  If you have to use fossil fuels to generate the electricity, you're still polluting to reduce your pollution.  

Not so in Norway, which is blessed with fast moving rivers all over, so that 95% of the energy to run these electric cars originates in hydroelectric plants that convert moving or falling water into electricity with virtually no pollution.

An additional advantage: Electric cars are more efficient.  They transfer 60% of their energy to the cars' wheels, while gasoline motors waste much of their energy in the form of heat, transferring only 20% to power the car.

OK, next Republican debate moderator.  There are a couple of good questions here to ask of the climate deniers in the next debate.

Ralph
[Information source:  articles from the Huffington Post and the New York Times.]