Charging phone in car adds to pollution

It's not just using a cellphone while driving that's a menace to society. Charging it in the car has consequences too. That's because a phone drawing electricity from an USB port cuts 0.03 miles from each gallon of gasoline in a tank. Across US, that would mean about 970,000 tonnes of extra planet-warming carbon dioxide a year, according to Jon Bereisa, a retired General Motors Co engineering executive. The extra CO2 created by plugging in one phone in every car in the US would be the same as that produced by 185,257 passenger vehicles in one year. It's not just an environmental issue. The proliferation of consumer devices, the growth of dashboard touch screens and shrinking size of engines to meet fuel-economy mandates mean the 12-volt automobile electrical system is tapped out. Automakers are already turning to supplemental 48-volt systems. The number of vehicles sold in the US with USB charge ports rose to about 14.6 million last year from about 3.3 million in 2005, the first year they were available, and is projected to climb to 16.7 million by 2022, according to a forecast from the consulting firm IHS. Global sales of vehicles with USB ports will increase to 85 million in 2022 from about 49 million last year, IHS said. The estimated extra CO2 created by plugging in one phone in every car in the US would be about the same as that produced by 185,257 passenger vehicles in one year, according to an Environmental Protection Agency website that converts greenhouse gas into real-world equivalents. Put another way, that's the pollution created by burning 945 million pounds of coal. Bloomberg