Thank you so much for going to see Who Killed the Electric Car?, and for bringing your young nephew. I admire that you care about the car you drive. It is unfortunate that, in 2006, there are still so few choices in cleaner vehicles for Americans.

I did some internet research, and apparently there are only 2 ethanol stations in Tennessee , so you are fortunate to have one near your work! If you purchase a flex-fuel vehicle, then you can use put ethanol in your gas tank (E85 is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) when possible, and put gasoline in the tank when no ethanol fuel station is around. Check out the car you currently drive, because a lot of cars have flex fuel capabilities and you might not even know it! Car companies get financial incentives from the federal government to produce flex fuel cars, but they don’t have to be driven a such, so they generally don’t bother to tell buyers if the car is flex fuel or not.

Although I think that anything to get us off gasoline is a positive step, I have some reservations about ethanol. Most specifically, at the moment it is inefficient to make ethanol from corn, which is what we do here in the US . We use more energy making it than the car gets from burning it! We use a lot of farmland and a lot of pesticides to grow the corn. Hopefully, soon it will be formulated more from switchgrass, which is more efficient. Big Agriculture, is of course a lot behind the push for ethanol, which isnt bad in itself, but we must be wary of the advertising they pay for extolling its virtues! Look on the internet at many different sources to get the full picture on ethanol.

Buying a diesel car and running it on biodiesel is also an alternative to gasoline. Biodiesel emits less greenhouse gases, except for nitrous oxides: “…Biodiesel has long been shown to reduce all regulated emissions, with the exception of nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions, which are a contributing factor in the localized formation of smog and ozone. Few studies suggest a slight increase in nitrous oxide emissions and varies widely based upon the type engine and type of biodiesel used. Older engines may be responsible for higher nitrous oxide emissions as well. Nitrous oxide emission increases range from 1-15%.” (from http://www.uoregon.edu/~sskach/Drawbacks.html). Again, because biodiesel is a step away from gasoline, I am proud to be an owner of a biodiesel truck.

Another option is to buy a more efficient car! Many regular cars are still more efficient than the hybrid SUVs, for example. If you drive 25 miles per day (and I think you drive much more than that), you save 2.5 gallons of gasoline daily and over the course of a year you would prevent 17,337 pounds of c02 of going into our atmosphere. That is a lot.

A Chinese car company, Miles Automotive, is coming out with a full electric car in late 2007 that will go over 200 miles per charge and that will cost $28,500. For most Americans, that range is more than enough to satisfy daily driving needs (http://www.milesautomotive.com/products_xs200.html) I, too, am a union member (Screen Actors Guild) and support unions, but not at the expense of the environment. In other words, I happily buy a foreign car if it gets better mileage and runs more cleanly than an American car. I would never cross a picket line, but I have no hesitation to not buy American if I would be promoting polluting practices.

I hope that helps with your excellent questions.

Alexandra

Dear Simon,

I love voting, so I can never understand why people don’t go to the polls. I feel bad that people are so jaded that they don’t care about voting. I have never missed an election in the 25 years that I have been eligible, and every time I am excited and even moved by the experience. They also pass out candy at my current polling place, which is an added bonus!

I believe my vote does count, although I have to admit that in the last years I have been very concerned with these paperless electronic voting machines. I believe that they were tampered with in the last 2 elections and that Kerry was the true winner of the Presidential race, but that doesn’t stop me from casting my ballot! We must vote and then we must fight to make our votes safe (go to www.blackboxvoting.org
to learn more about the dangers of electronic machines with no paper backup). To see more about my feelings on voting, click here.

As for Iraq , one thing I am sure: it was wrong for the US to invade Iraq . It was an illegal, unjust war and it has made everyone in the world less safe. It has killed more than 2,600 American soldiers and wounded over 15,000 more. Over 45,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed (www.iraqbodycount.org). I cannot say whether Saddam should have been “removed” in the 1990 Gulf War, because I was not that aware of all the circumstances there. I do know that the US promised to remove his regime back then because all this troops were in Kuwait so he was more vulnerable, but at the last minute the US changed its mind and a lot of anti-Saddam Iraqis were left exposed and were killed by Saddam. Dirty pool all around.

I hope all the visitors to this site are inspired to vote in the next election. Without a concerned, informed and active citizenry, illegal wars will continue to be waged by our governments.

Sincerely,

Alexandra

Congratulations on your first triathlon and good luck in your upcoming races. I am glad you enjoyed Who Killed the Electric Car? At the moment, EV’s are cost prohibitive for many people, but if the people who can afford them and who say they care about air pollution would practice what they preach, the price would then come down for everyone else. It was also be a message to carmakers that Americans want cleaner cars! Conversions, however, are more affordable, and if you go to the Electric Auto Association or Plug in America websites you will find EV enthusiasts who convert all sorts of gas cars to full electric. I have owned 2 cars that were converted to electric in someone’s garage!

The kudos on this website go to Vietly, the webmaster, who does do an incredible job. She is an environmentalist, a vegetarian and an activist, so she and I are very simpatico, but she is also a computer whiz, which I am not! I am very lucky that she started this site and has continued to run it for so many years. Thank you, Vietly!

And thank you, Robert, for writing. Please spread the EV word.

Alexandra