Good for it, but not all buses run from overhead wires. There are buses in SF that are much the same, and I'm sure in other cities.

But let's let old topics go back to rest.

Are you people forgetting that electricity is generated from fossil fuels? Driving an electric car or using electric rail only moves the pollution from your car to your local gas, oil, or coal power plant. Switching over to Wind and Solar power would fix that, but making the switch is unfortunately very expensive, and there are powerful lobbies for the existing energy sources.

Of course it's also very expensive to replace the entire electrical grid, but that's going to need to be done eventually anyway or we won't have any power anymore(our current grid gets us 30% efficiency and is on the verge of failure).

Wrong. (Not completely wrong, but at least wrong in this specific case.)

http://www.seattle.gov/light/fuelmix/

Currently 2% of Seattle's power comes from fossil fuels. (For complicated but entirely legitimate reasons, hydroelectric generation is not counted as "renewable" in Washington state law.) This state is also a net exporter of power, particularly to California.

My bus is very clean.

Also, it's easier to gradually transition one thing (the power grid) than it is to suddenly transition everyone to new tech.

While chronomex basically countered your point, it's worth noting that electricity is also generated by the aforementioned hydroelectric plants and then the other categories such as solar panel fields and wind farms. Also, electric vehicles may have a technology called regenerative braking which helps conserve battery, but completely unrelated to the point at hand.

Wow, I just realized this topic got OT in 2 posts.

Hybrids have that same technology, as well as lots of others that basically make their gas-powered engines a lot more efficient, which is why they're probably the best compromise right now. None of this takes into account of course the pollution that is generated in the production of those massive batteries, a problem which you also have with pure electric vehicles.

In fact I read once that the production of a Toyota Prius generates [a lot] more pollution than the production of a Hummer H1. If that's true, then you might not actually be saving much of anything by driving a hybrid or electric car. Can someone confirm/deny this for me?