Why Drive an EV?

by Tom Walker 

This month FPL Green launched Drive Green our second Green Lives initiative for the congregation.  Once again we are collaborating with Green Energy Consumers Alliance to offer something you can do in your personal life that can make a real difference in the fight against climate change.  According to GECA:
“[g]as-powered cars are a leading cause of climate change. Nationally, transportation accounts for 28% of our greenhouse gas emissions, more than any other sector. Historically, electricity generation was the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, but thanks to advances in energy efficiency and cleaner energy supply (i.e. more wind and solar, less oil and coal), that is no longer the case. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, transportation is now the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions.
 
The consensus among energy experts is that in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently (80% below 1990 levels by 2050 and 40% by 2030), we must rapidly increase adoption of EVs.
 
Switching from a gas-powered car to an electric vehicle has huge environmental and public health benefits. A vehicle running only on electricity has zero tail-pipe emissions. Even if you account for the emissions associated with producing the electricity to charge them, electric vehicles charged with electricity in New England produce far fewer greenhouse gas emissions than vehicles powered by internal combustion engines.”

As you can see in the graph, EVs powered with electricity from Eversource generate only about 25% of the CO2 emissions released from a gasoline fueled vehicle.  And if you’ve signed up for the Renewable Wind initiative that we’ve been promoting, driving your car produces no, that’s right, zero CO2. Which is all the more reason to sign on for both the initiatives we’ve been promoting this fall.
 
Finally, we want to remind everyone that some of the federal and state subsidies are expected to begin expiring soon on certain popular models.  When combined with the dealer discounts negotiated by Green Energy Consumers Alliance, recent buyers have been able to achieve savings of up to almost half the cost of an EV that lists for $35,000.  So if you think you might be interested, the time to buy is now.  We can report that FPL members who have already made the switch love their EVs.