Happy Father’s Day everyone!

Actually, on second thought, the original figure seems fairly reasonable.

The carbon from simply burning a gallon of fuel is only the tip of the iceberg. The Indirect Costs to bring us that fuel are surely quite high, and should at least be considered. These costs include the exploration for the oil (and the inevitable accidental spills), the roads and transportation costs, the costs of defending and securing the oil supply lines, etc., not to mention the long-term costs to our collective psyches and well-being that a “cheap oil lifestyle” brings.

To paraphrase an old ad:
The costs of a gallon of fuel burned:2.278 grams/mile.
The costs to bring you that gallon of fuel: 10.084 grams/mile.
The costs to our happiness: priceless.

Thanks for the figures, but something about the numbers you listed didn’t quite appear right. After checking the epa.gov/otaq/climate site under calculations, it appears your figure for the grams of carbon per gallon of gasoline is right in line with the EPA’s figures, but the EPA lists grams per gallon of diesel as 2,278, rather than 10,084. Hope this helps.

This gives 19.4 pounds of C02/gallon for gasoline and 22.2 for diesel.

According to the EPA (and common sense), the actual figure depends on many other variables (such as, I assume, how the fuel is brought from the ground to the market), and the energy density of the fuels will differ, but the EPA workers start their calculators with a gallon of fuel, no matter how it arrived at the lab.

Looks like a nice car with a power train arrangement that has worked nicely in the Fusion and Escape.

According to the EPA a gallon of gasoline has 2421 grams of carbon. So burning a gallon of gasoline produces 8788 grams (99% of carbon to CO2) of CO2. So at 39 MPG average that works out to 225 grams/mile or 140 grams/KM. City would be 133 grams/KM and highway would be 152.

BTW Diesel is 10,084 grams per gallon.