Quote:
Originally Posted by Cowboy89
The % of coal in the electricity grid is assumed to be static in that analysis, which is not how it's going to go down going forward after the EPA/ Obama introduces their new GHG emission policies this summer. On the basis of that analysis, then shouldn't the government be banning electric cars to be sold in those states as well?
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Yes the emission factor will drop no doubt over time, it would need to halve though for it to be equal with rail. That would require replacing all coal fire generation in those zones with natural gas before the useful life of the pipeline expires. And even then you're talking about it becoming equal to rail after 30 years, or so, which before that time you will have racked up much much more cummulative emissions as compared to rail.
You make a sound academic point but it doesn't really address my basic and fundamental point that pipelines move bitumen with more GHG intensity.
Actually, come to think of it piped bitumen is actually only 80% bitumen and 20% diluent while trained bitumen would be 100% bitumen. You can add an extra 20% onto pipeline emission factors by that alone and if you want to be very sophisticated you would also count the emissions from producing the natural gas liquids, recycling them and shipping them back to Alberta. I would assume that would add another 5-15% of emissions so factoring that piped would add an extra 35% of GHGs ontop of 0.033 Kg/TKM.