EAC partners with Haywood County Master Gardeners at Riverbend and Junaluska Elementary Schools

We Love Our Electric Vehicle!

by Jim & Janine Geenen

It’s been a year since I last pulled into a gas station to fill my car. Yes, a year. My wife and I are 77 years old. We’re not big automobile fans and are not very tech savvy. Why would we buy a state-of-the-art electric vehicle that is basically a computer on wheels?
 

The main reason is we care about the future for our children and grandchildren. We all know the environmental damage being done by fossil fuels. That is not debatable. 

Let’s look at the challenges. Yes, an electric battery is composed of metals sourced from the ground, around 1000 lbs. That is a real concern. However, balance that with 1,500 lbs of gasoline extracted from the ground annually for gas-powered vehicles and we have our answer.

Yes, EVs are expensive, but are presently only $2,800 more than the average price for new gas powered vehicles. Prices of EVs are declining and there are more options than just the top of the line EVs. There are also federal and state rebates. 

Now, for more incentives. EVs are only about ½ the cost to maintain than equivalent gas-powered vehicles. After one year, we’ve had no maintenance issues. I spoke with a fellow EV owner who said since 2019, he’s only had to replace windshield wiper blades. A friend and EV owner for almost 5 years said he’s only had to replace tires.

Passing gas stations is a pleasure and for us, traveling to the East coast and Midwest, EV charging stations have never been a challenge to find. We generally charge at our Level 2 home charger which cost $1200 to install. We’ve saved that much in just fuel costs this year.

Safety is a huge issue with us. Our automatic collision avoidance signal saved us twice from passing cars nearly broadsiding us. And then there’s the torque. How many times do we hesitate before deciding to speed up or slow down when a vehicle is merging onto the highway from our right? We no longer have to hesitate but rather just hit the accelerator and the torque does its thing.

And one last thing. I love to drive my EV! It’s the best vehicle I have ever owned. 

EVs are the future! Buy a raffle ticket for your chance to be part of this electric revolution!

Click the EV Raffle button below to learn more or purchase a $200 raffle ticket. Your support will allow us to build out solar and EV charging stations as well as hire an executive director to move our current all-volunteer organization into the future and impact climate change.

Did you know?

Did you know that registrations of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in Haywood County grew 65% year over year from April 2023 to April 2024?  Plug-in hybrid registrations during the same period grew 25%, and hybrids grew 7.5%.  So, despite what you might hear from fossil fuel industry-sponsored misinformation campaigns, the trend for electric vehicles is up, up, up!  Also, notice that pure electric vehicles, BEVs, saw the greatest growth rate in our county. 

Data obtained from the NCDOT website on ZEV (zero emission vehicle) trends for 2024 in North Carolina.

One of the reasons we are conducting our first annual EV raffle is to help build out EV charging in Haywood County.  EVs are available in the marketplace today and are more affordable than ever, so we need to make sure that public parking lots have EV charging infrastructure to help locals and tourists charge up.  Charging opportunities in our community should be as common and plentiful as street lights.  27% of emissions in the U.S. come from the transportation sector; in our rural county, air pollution from vehicles approaches a whopping 50%!   

We can speed adoption of emissions-free EVs by building out additional educational opportunities in Haywood County, deploy charging solutions at scale, and leverage the IRA to help our municipal and county fleets make the transition faster.

By buying a ticket (or two) for our RIVIAN raffle, you have an opportunity to spec out a well-reviewed and much-loved Rivian truck or SUV.  Way more important than that, you are contributing to a vision of the future that is free from fossil fuels and committed to net zero emissions by 2050.

Win a Rivian Premium EV: the R1Truck or R1SUV - your choice. Enter today! Get the details at the website: www.eacevraffle.org.

Don’t Miss Out!  Buy a Ticket Today!

Sustainability: It's More than Just the 3Rs

Remember the 3Rs? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Well it's more like the 10Rs now, Repair being one.

In keeping with one of EAC's mission statement components, sustainability, we are highlighting two sustainable enterprises in our area.

From N.C. PIRG (Public Interest Research Group):

From shrink-wrapped peppers to plastic bags full of pasta, it seems like every trip to the supermarket results in more of one thing -- garbage.

Grocery stores are increasingly stocking their shelves with produce and pantry staples swaddled in single-use plastics, contributing to our country's ongoing plastic waste crisis.

Nearly 30% of all waste in the United States comes from plastic packaging, creating 82 million tons of man-made garbage. This waste winds up in landfills, litters our public spaces and contaminates our waterways.

Now, more than ever, food retailers like Walmart have a responsibility to curb this copious waste by getting rid of unnecessary plastic packaging.

Tell Walmart: It's time to slash single-use plastics.

As the largest retailer in the world, Walmart reported $648 billion in sales last year, with more than 255 million customers visiting one of its 10,500 stores every week.

While the industry giant previously said it would implement more sustainable practices, Walmart continues to wrap fresh fruits and vegetables in bulky clamshells and wasteful shrink-wrap.

More recently, the retailer has even started stocking pasta in single-use plastic bags in lieu of recyclable cardboard.

Considering that 91% of plastic isn't recycled, just imagine how much waste every visit to Walmart creates.

Make your voice heard: Ask Walmart to reduce wasteful plastic packaging.

Given its influence in the food retail industry, by stepping up, Walmart could truly change the way the industry packages consumables.

We've already been successful in calling on Amazon to phase out single-use plastics in its U.S. shipping bags.

And we're continuing to convince retail giants like Costco to phase out their plastic packaging. Last fall, PIRG and our national network delivered 80,000 petition signatures from supporters like you urging Costco to reduce single-use plastics. Costco has since committed to developing a 5-year action plan to reduce the amount of plastic it uses.

If we can persuade a superstore like Walmart to step away from plastic packaging, it's only a matter of time before other retailers follow their lead.

Add your name: It's time for Walmart to dump single-use plastics.