May 10, 1999

Dear Editor of Sierra Magazine,

We Sierrans should discuss developments in zero emission electric vehicles and their relation to "green power", one of the most exciting developments for global warming energy activists.

Battery electric vehicles are the only current vehicles which can use the power of the wind and sun to run their motors, resulting in no air pollution of any kind from the generation of power. Yes, there is a minute amount of pollution emitted in the process of building the solar and wind units, but it isn't worth mentioning.

Electric industry restructuring is sweeping the United States. Many states have already passed laws deregulating their electric utilities and opening the power supply market to competition. The U.S. Congress is also considering establishing national legislation. The best bill is the Jeffords bill which deserves your support. Write to Congress now.

In regulated markets, some 50 utilities are now offering or planning to offer "green pricing" to their customers. As a result, by the end of 1999, nearly one-fourth of all U.S. electricity consumers will have the option to purchase "green power." As competition spreads in the electric power industry, more consumers will be given this choice and the market for green-power services will expand substantially.

Power marketers have entered the new markets and are offering a variety of new power products and services. Several companies have chosen to offer environmentally-preferable power products that include energy generated from renewable resources. Renewable resources include non-polluting resources such as wind turbines, small hydro dams, and systems that collect the energy contained in the sun's rays. They also include more traditional power plants that burn less-polluting alternative fuel sources such as landfill gas, wood waste and other plant matter.

Electric vehicle advocates should be encouraging others to sign up for green power and to charge their EV cars and trucks with green power electricity.

We should also be warning our friends that gasoline powered hybrids which can not be recharged from the grid or other green electricity, like solar panels on your roof, continue our slavish dependence on carbon fuels, which create smog, carbon monoxide pollution, and global warming, oil spills, oil wars in the Mideast and other problems.

Honda's recent decision to pull the plug on the EV Plus battery electric vehicle and to put all their eggs into the Honda VV gasoline hybrid should be condemned. Don't buy the VV! This is a stalking horse being used to provide cover for all the auto companies to kill the zero emissions mandate.

The fuel cell EVs that have been proposed are suggesting that carbon fuels, like gasoline, natural gas, methanol, etc. be used, instead of hydrogen. Hydrogen can be produced from electricity and even green electricity, so in principle, this is a benign fuel, if produced responsibly. As a source of hydrogen, these carbon fuels, however, should be rejected as continuing our addiction to gasoline and oil. Tell your friends, we don't support fuel cells unless they get their hydrogen from non-polluting sources.

Sincerely,

Charlie Garlow, member since 1988
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