How Smart are Smart Cars?

                                       
On Wednesday October 21st I attended an event on campus called Energy Innovations: Solutions for meeting 21st Century Energy Needs that was hosted by a number of organizations including the MSC Student Conference on National Affairs. I have little knowledge of this topic, but as a committee member I was required to attend. Knowing that this event was a panel, I went in with the intention of locating arguments that certain panelists were making. One speaker, a man named Robert Stewart made an argument that contrary to popular belief, electronic cars are not necessarily more environmentally friendly. He claimed that although they use electricity instead of fuel, energy is still being used just through battery power. He used his position as owner and founder of Lime Investments, LLC and his background in the energy field to establish ethos with the audience. He also utilized a power point presentation that contained statistics and facts regarding the amount of energy electric cars use to establish logos in his argument. Because of his credibility and the evidence he used in his argument, I went from thinking that electric cars were so much better for the environment to realizing that although they are not using regular fuel, energy is still being consumed regardless.