Flashes of Panic

In the parking lot of our apartment building there is a car bearing a mark declaring it a “Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle.”

I did some minimal research to figure out just what that meant, because, as you may have figured out, I’m a bit of a crank about some things, and it seems to me that a “partial” zero emissions vehicle is, in fact, not a zero emissions vehicle at all. It turns out, of course, that it’s a government designation born of the need to have something in between a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle (I am not making this up) and a true Zero Emissions Vehicle. I think the idea behind the designation is that parts of the vehicle are zero emissions: it’s a partial (zero emissions vehicle), not a (partial zero) (emissions vehicle).

But it did have me wondering what a partial zero would look like.