Electric cars are a great option now. In the past year, you have seen an increase in natural disasters. Climate change is here now. Fifty-four percent of the greenhouse gasses produced in Maine come from gas powered vehicles (Maine DEP January 2020) If you are buying a car, consider an EV. Gas is up about 30 percent since last year.

Being concerned about global warming, I bought my EV in 2020 and love this quiet, peppy car. I got a $2,500 rebate from Efficiency Maine and a $7,500 federal tax credit. With these two benefits, the price of my car was similar to a gas car. My EV needs less maintenance and no oil changes. Combustion engines have 3000 moving parts while an EV engine has about 300 parts – so less maintenance.

If helping the environment and saving money appeals, look at the Efficiency Maine Website and see available models, their charge distance and the state rebates. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill contains $7.5 billion for Electric Vehicle Infrastructure so more charging stations soon.

The climate crisis is here so whether an EV appeals to you or not, please consider calling Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King and Reps. Chellie Pingree or Jared Golden and ask them to support a price on carbon. Thousands of economists and scientists support this as the most important first step to slow climate change. An electric car will decrease your carbon footprint a little; if we can get our legislators to act on the climate crisis it will help the world a lot.

Nancy Hasenfus
Brunswick

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