Time to Switch to Clean Energy and Clean Energy Cars

Time to Switch to Clean Energy and Clean Energy Cars
By Lyn Sudlow, Sierra Club Maine ExCom Member

National Drive Electric Day is coming up and we are celebrating it here in Maine at the South Portland Community Center at 21 Nelson Road in South Portland where there are 3 electric charging stations already installed. One is high speed.

I care about this because I drive an all-electric car, the Nissan Leaf. The Leaf is one of a growing number of plug-in and all electric cars available to the public.

I love this car. It is compact, super quiet, easy to drive, and great for short trips to the store, run errands, or go out for dinner or ice cream in the nearby town.  Best of all, there is no guilt over driving a gas-guzzling, fossil-fuel dependent vehicle that pollutes the atmosphere and speeds up the coming climate crisis.

Each year cars and trucks in the US burn more than 100 billion gallons of gasoline and emit 3 trillion pounds of carbon pollution into the air from both the vehicles themselves and the "upstream" emissions from extracting, refining, and transporting the oil to our vehicles. In addition, our dependence on oil has resulted in catastrophes like the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico with more spills and major pipeline leaks occuring regularly. Our dependence on foreign oil has also influenced our foreign policies and mired us in conflicts with disastrous consequences. We need to wean ourselves off of fossil fuels for so many urgent reasons.

We installed a level 2 charger at home that will give our Leaf a complete charge in under 3 hours. The cost of the electricity used is minimal compared to the cost of gasoline for a similar car. The car can also regenerate its own electricity while coasting or going down hills. We can sometimes get to our destination with more potential miles than when we started.  It becomes a game to see how efficiently we can drive.

The down-side is that, in Maine, longer trips are not yet really feasible The Leaf has a potential range of about 85 miles (depending on hills, weather conditions, etc.) before it needs re-charging.  I can get to Portland from where I live. There are now a couple of high-speed chargers in the Portland area including the one at the South Portland Community Center. I can charge the car in half an hour and then I am sure I can get home. Level 2 chargers are more common, but if you are travelling long distances, you may not want to sit around for 3 hours waiting for your car to charge before proceeding.  We need more high speed chargers.

Change is coming. More chargers are being installed for public use and some businesses are now installing them for their employees. Other areas of the country are far ahead of Maine. The Boston area has several high-speed chargers available as well as many level 2’s.

There are some great aps to help drivers locate chargers. PlugShare (www.plugshare.com) has more than 50,000 chargers mapped to help electric car drivers.  The Leaf offers an alternative in-dash display of the nearest chargers.

You can find out more at the South Portland Community Center, 21 Nelson Drive, on Sunday, September 21 from noon to 5pm. There will be a variety of electric vehicles on display. You can chat with the owners, the car dealers, the experts, and even ride or try driving some of the cars. There will be free food and a raffle for a level 2 charging station.

Revision Energy (who will be at the event) has a charger powered by solar panels.  Kennebunk Power and Light also has one that is powered by solar energy. Eventually I want to have that capability at home.

More information is also available at these sites:

South Portland Drive Electric Event:
https://driveelectricweek.org/event.php?eventid=348

Sierra Club EV Guide:
http://content.sierraclub.org/EVguide/go-electric

Plug In America Organization:
http://www.pluginamerica.org/

PlugShare – charger locator:
http://www.plugshare.com/