The Electric Stars 155
grow the plants that will be turned into ethanol, but not in
other countries. “Domestic ethanol as the primary solution
will definitely not work for the world’s most populous
countries, such as Japan, China, India, Pakistan, Indonesia,”
Elon said. “Those countries are either breaking even on
domestic food production or are net importers. If you argue
that ethanol is to be grown elsewhere and shipped, where
are the vast tracts of unused arable land?”^248
Electricity is the best alternative because electricity is
like cash – it can be generated in many ways. You can
power an electric vehicle by generating electricity from
coal, wind, solar, water, oil, natural gas, geothermal, or
nuclear power.^359
Electric vehicles are also energy efficient to use. Let’s
say you produce electricity in a coal power plant. If you
calculate the CO2 per mile if an electric vehicle is charged
with electricity from the coal power plant, the electric
vehicle will release less CO2 per mile compared with a
hybrid car. This is because even without clean electricity
production, it’s very efficient to produce power at a power
plant. “What’s important to appreciate is that even if the
power is 100 percent coal-generated, the CO2 per mile is
still better than a gasoline engine,” Elon said. “The electric
motor is incredibly good at turning energy into motion.
Mostly what you’re doing with a gasoline engine in a car
is generating heat.”^57
In 2003, Elon went to a lunch in Los Angeles organized
by Harold Rosen.^199 With them was also JB Straubel, who
first heard of Elon when he attended a Stanford University