Letters and Op-Eds on Electric Vehicles
Ruth Striegel, co-chair of Interfaith Power & Light New Mexico and El Paso, penned a great letter to the editor in the Saturday, July 15, edition of the Albuquerque Journal,
Transition to EVs must happen ASAP
I PURCHASED a lightly-used Nissan LEAF all-electric vehicle in 2016. Because there were almost no such vehicles available in Albuquerque, I had to find one from out of state. Consumers want EVs, and we want our local dealers to carry and service them. Although my car’s range is less than 100 miles, I charge up at home, plan ahead, and get along very nicely without using a public charging station. New EVs have much longer ranges, and they will only get better.
Thanks to federal funds, New Mexico will have fast-charging stations every 50 miles on our interstates, as well as on U.S. 550.
We need clean electricity to replace fossil fuels. I’m able to charge my car using roof-top solar. Once we get community solar up and running, many more people will have access to that clean source of energy.
Our planet’s climate systems are breaking down. If we are to have any hope of repairing them, we must stop burning fossil fuels ASAP. We must change our habits and our thinking and put the good of the planet before our personal wants and convenience. The transition to EVs must happen quickly, and the governor’s push to put more EVs in dealerships is a good move in that direction.
The letter is contained in the Talk of Town section along with other letters on EVs
On Sunday, July 16,
Present and future bright for EV charging stations in NM
By Tammy Fiebelkorn
Albuquerque city councilor, District 7; N.M. representative, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP)
Opponents of the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) paint a false dystopian picture of people trapped in vehicles, unable to go beyond the borders of their neighborhoods due to a lack of charging stations.
The Journal’s July 7 editorial, published four days after Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham proposed an important clean cars and trucks standard for New Mexico, played on this trope with outdated talking points on EV charging infrastructure. In fact, there was an EV charging station right where the governor made her announcement, and two more within a few blocks. New Mexico has 500 EV chargers statewide, and more are coming soon.
The proposed vehicle standard would require 43% of new cars and trucks for sale in New Mexico to be zero-emission vehicles starting with model year 2027, rising to 82% for model year 2032. This standard would affect significantly less than 43% of people because the regulation impacts only new vehicle sales. Only about 25% of drivers across the country purchase new vehicles. And Clean Car standards do not apply to any vehicles already on the road….
A Clean Cars standard will increase sales of electric vehicles and help New Mexico significantly reduce its greenhouse gas and air pollution. Saving lives from air pollution and our children from climate catastrophe call for our best efforts to create solutions, not to be dismissed as impractical.
The transition to EVs is perhaps the largest change in America’s transportation infrastructure since the creation of the U.S. highway system nearly a century ago, and the move from horses to Model Ts before that. This shift carries obvious challenges, but the EV charging landscape in New Mexico is already evolving rapidly to meet drivers’ needs.