Letters for May 8, 2023

Numbers don’t add up

In his letter (“Where will the power come from?” April 30), Don McManus demonstrates why legitimate scientific journals require peer review before an article is published. It helps to weed out errors.

I agree that a need to increase electricity production is a natural consequence of shifting to electric vehicles, but not to the extent that he proposes. I don’t dispute all of his numbers, my own quick Google search also found 135 billion gallons annual U.S. gasoline consumption and 37.7 kilowatt hours energy equivalent per gallon.

His mistake comes from assuming that all of that energy equivalent is converted into work. Internal combustion engines are marvelous pieces of engineering, but they are not 100% efficient. Not even close.

Another quick Google search finds that in 2021, the average U.S. vehicle fuel economy was 25.4 miles per gallon. And that current EVs on average use 0.35 kWh per mile. 0.35 x 25.4 = 8.9 kWh electricity to move the average EV the same distance that a gallon moves the average gas powered vehicle. Less than one-quarter of the 37.7 kWh Mr. McManus uses to calculate a potential need to double U.S. electricity production.

Just because something “seems logical” doesn’t mean that it is correct.

Jim Sackville-West

Spokane

Shawn Vestal’s venom

Shawn Vestal is one of the reasons we see people pre-judging law enforcement before the officers can ever perform their dangerous jobs safely (“Accountability requires answers, not slogans,” April 26). Although there may be a very few more aggressive officers in an understaffed sea of exemplary men and women, the vast majority is committed to saving lives as well as their own.

Kudos to Meidl and Woodward for a unified and supportive tone for people committed to providing a safe place to live.

Shawn should go on a few ride-alongs, if anyone would take him.

Louanne Graham

Spokane