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<v 0>Electric cars may seem like the wave of the future,</v>

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but they actually already had their heyday in the early 1900s - that is until

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Henry Ford's "Model T" and the discovery of cheap gas came along.

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But today electric cars are having a comeback.

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Electric vehicles or "EVs" are much more environmentally friendly than

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gas-powered vehicles, but they aren't as perfectly clean as you might think.

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While they do run fully off electricity using a battery for power and admit no

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greenhouse gases while running, they do produce some pollution, just indirectly.

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The minerals used in their batteries are mined from the earth,

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and this mining process often releases toxic dust and requires lots of

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water. Their batteries can also weigh up to 1000 pounds,

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so moving them and processing them contributes to carbon dioxide emissions.

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Electric cars also need electricity to run and that electricity has to come from

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somewhere. It can come from a coal plant, which is a big source of emissions,

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or it can come from a lower polluting source like natural gas, wind,

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or solar energy. In other words,

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how clean the car is depends on the source of the electricity.

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But electric cars are still more environmentally friendly than cars that run on

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fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel,

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which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

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If you remember from science class,

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carbon dioxide is one of many greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth's

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atmosphere and contribute to global warming.

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The U.S. transportation sector is the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

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Globally, EV's represent only about 3 percent of car sales,

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but that number is growing.

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China is the largest carbon dioxide polluter in the world,

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but it actually has the largest stock of electric cars and the largest fleet of

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electric buses. In the U.S.,

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California has the highest number of electric vehicle registrations.

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As EV's become more popular in the U.S.,

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one challenge the government will face is how to earn revenue,

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because currently gas tax revenues fund much of the upkeep of the nation's

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highways.