(ET) A Thread -- System-based Pollution Evaluation

[Wayne Mosher <alleights worldnet att net>]

I am all for reducing pollution.  I am sure that our ETs produce less
pollution at the point of use vs. gasoline powered devices.  But I
wonder if anyone knows of a comprehensive study that would include all
pollution at all locations associated with (say) cutting an acre of
grass.

Using an ET, we would have:

    One-time costs:
        steel, batteries, motors, paint etc for the ET
        GE's factory pollution to build the ET
        the electric power company's similar costs to build the
generating plant and transmission lines and substations etc.

    On-going costs:
        Pollution associated with mining the coal or extracting the fuel
oil etc. that will be burned at the power plant to produce electricity
-- including the electricity that is lost in transmission -- that will
be used to recharge the ET batteries
        Pollution associated with producing and delivering new power
packs as needed for the ET.

For gasoline powered equipment:

    One time costs:
        Pollution associated with producing gasoline powered equipment
        Pollution associated with building refineries and other
infrastructure
        Pollution associated with finding and developing oil production
fields

    Ongoing pollution
        Pollution associated with extracting and refining crude oil into
gasoline including interim transportation
        Pollution associated with delivery of gasoline to our point of
use site
        Pollution associated with powering the equipment at the time of
use.

I've probably left out some pollution "costs" but I'm sure you get the
idea.  If we include EVERYTHING, how do the two methods compare?