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  • 2021-11-22 (xsd:date)
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  • Is Coal-Powered Energy Charging These Electric Cars? (en)
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  • On Nov. 20, 2021, a Facebook post was created with the caption: Fact check this one. It showed a misleading meme that claimed to depict coal-powered electric cars while they were being charged in a parking lot. The full text of the meme read: Coal powered electric cars.... helping liberals pretend they are solving a make-believe crisis. Another Facebook post with the same meme was put up by the Norcal Kustoms page with the caption, Truth. It earned more than 16,000 shares. However, there was no evidence that this picture showed electric cars being charged with coal energy. On Dec. 15, 2014, Wired.com reported that the original photograph came directly from General Electric (GE). Its caption was as follows: Electric vehicle chargers in the parking lot of GE's Global Research headquarters in Niskayuna, New York. Niskayuna is located in Schenectady County, just a few miles north of Albany. According to Wired, the picture was an example of GE looking to create a more energy efficient way to charge electric cars. It combined artificial intelligence and machine learning to estimate exactly how much electricity it needs to pump out. According to data from the U.S. Department of Energy, the electric power provided to Schenectady County came from natural gas. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also published several myths about electric vehicles that should squash any further questions about the subject. Further, we found no indication that the Schenectady area was powered by coal energy in 2014, when the picture was first published. As for the second part of the meme that appeared to call climate change a make-believe crisis, this also was highly misleading. As we previously reported in a fact check of another picture, the climate crisis is a non-political, science-based problem that for decades has been discussed by those in opposition to reality as if it’s a matter of personal opinion. In October 2021, The Associated Press (AP) reported that climate change in 2021 reshaped life on planet Earth through extreme weather. In sum, the coal-powered electric cars meme was highly misleading. For the reasons documented in our reporting, we have rated it False. (en)
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