Providing roads, parking lots, driveways, and other supporting structures destroys farmland and habitat. Suburban sprawl is a direct result of plentiful cars, subsidized roads, and cheap gasoline. The eight million cars that are junked each year are partly recycled, but also create large hazardous waste problems. Many of the worst effects come from the automobile's use of energy. Between 1973 and 1993 there were over 200,000 oil spills in US waters, spilling over 230 million gallons of oil.
Oil refineries are a major source of air and water pollution.
The underground storage tanks at gas stations leak, contaminating groundwater. Gasoline evaporates as you pump it into your car, and when you spill it on the ground, contributing to smog. Oil drips from your engine, and finds its way into lakes and rivers. Leading by example, UCS's Berkeley office recently installed a green-powered charger station for electric vehicles. The station was installed in our parking lot to fuel the General Motors EV1 that UCS Senior Scientist Don Aitken drives.