For the second year in a row,
Sierra Club helped organize National Plug In Day events around Florida. The events, which took place September 28-29,
are part of a coast-to-coast national celebration involving 98 cities across
the U.S. and organized nationally by the Sierra Club, Plug In America, and the
Electric Auto Association. Together these events aim to draw global attention
to the environmental and economic benefits of zero emission plug in electric
vehicles.
 |
| Nigel Mould talks to attendees about his Tesla Roadster at the Sarasota event (Herald-Tribune staff photo, Gallery) |
National Plug In Day is just one
way that Sierra Club Florida is educating the public about the environmental
benefits of electric vehicles. These
events are a way to introduce the EVs to hundreds of people in just a few short
hours. In Sarasota, the event was hosted
by Mote Marine Laboratories and organized in partnership with Sierra Club and
the City of Sarasota and Sarasota County. Attendees had the
chance to get behind the wheel of a wide range of electric vehicles, as well as
talk directly with dozens of electric vehicle owners. The consensus seems to be that once people
are able to get up close and personal with EVs, they’ll be more likely to
purchase a vehicle of their own. Sarasota
event organizers estimated that 550 people attended that event.
The events also aim to highlight
the critical connection between renewable energy sources and electric vehicles.
Electric vehicles are cleanest cars on the road but they have the ability to be
100% zero emission when solar energy is added to the equation. At the Temple Terrace
event, solar panels were on display next to the cars and charging stations to
clearly illustrate that powering your car using solar energy is not as
far-fetched as it may seem. You can
power your car from 100% solar power by installing just 150-300 square feet of
solar panels on your home or office building. So, what are we waiting for? It’s
time to ditch our dirty internal combustion engines and drive electric!
Orlando’s event incorporated similar renewable energy features, a
ride-and-drive opportunity and ended with an EV procession through the streets
of downtown Orlando. Sierra Club Central
Florida group volunteer Mary-Slater Linn played a key role in organizing Sierra
Club’s participation in Orlando’s event for the second year in a row.
 |
| Temple Terrace event organizer Tom Krumreich accepts the City of Temple Terrace National Plug In Day Proclamation from Mayor Frank Chillura (photo credit: Bessie Skoures, Gallery) |
Temple Terrace event organizer and
Sierra Club volunteer leader Thomas Krumreich says: “"I became
involved in National Plug In Day because I believe that we need to do
everything we can to encourage people to live sustainable and one of the best
ways to do that is to drive an electric vehicle. ”
This is Tom’s second year organizing National Plug In Day and he set a goal to
make the event bigger and better than last year. He recruited more vendors, more cars, more
partners, and more media attention to make this year’s event an outstanding
success. Sierra Club’s Florida Healthy
Air Campaign is thankful for Tom’s dedication and his passion for advocating
for clean cars and we are not the only one taking notice of Tom’s great work.
After watching him in action this year, the Sun Coast Electric Vehicle
Association offered Tom the position of Vice President, which he gladly
accepted. Congratulations to Tom
Krumreich for a job well done!
From cradle-to-grave, electric
vehicles are the cleanest cars on the road, even when taking into consideration
the electricity used to fuel them. According to a range of studies, driving an
electric vehicle emits 35-65% less carbon dioxide than the emissions from a conventional
gasoline-powered car1. Electricity is the only transportation fuel
that will only get cleaner over time. As
we retire more coal-fired power plants and bring cleaner sources of power
online, we’ll see emissions from electric vehicles drop even further.
Here are a few more reasons to get
amped up about electric vehicles, according to the National Plug In Day Website:
- Fueling your car with electricity is about five times cheaper than fueling with gasoline. It is also much more convenient to plug in at home than to stop by a gas station.
- EVs help reduce pollution from conventional vehicles. The U.S. transportation sector is responsible for nearly a third of our nation's carbon pollution, and the cars and light trucks on the road today account for about 20 percent of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions.
- EVs that rely fully on electricity have no tail-pipe emissions and, even taking into account the emissions from the electricity produced to charge EVs, these vehicles emit significantly less carbon dioxide on average than conventional vehicles.
