Letters to the Editor (Dec. 14)

Electric vehicles are not practical for rural areas 

Editor: 

Before it becomes impossible to purchase a vehicle powered by internal combustion, would somebody please tell the governor that electrical vehicles are not practical for rural New Mexico. 

Electric vehicles have many advantages for those living in Albuquerque, Santa Fe or similar large cities, but most of the population of New Mexico lives in rural counties, where it is not practical to drive an electronic vehicles.   

The primary problem is range. Some of the very expensive electronic vehicles have a range of about 700 miles, the cheaper models, such as Chevy’s Volt, do not travel much more than 300  miles on a fully-charged battery. After that, consider that cold weather reduces the capacity of a battery. In cold weather, a driver runs the risk of draining their battery much more quickly. In hot weather, the use of air conditioning and other accessories similarly reduce the range. What will a driver do when they’re driving in the country near Clovis and have their car go dead?  

Another problem is where are people to charge their vehicle in a rural county? There may be a few charging stations in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, but I’m aware of only one charging station in Valencia County, and there are probably no charging stations in many of our rural counties. Thus, the owner of any electric vehicle in a rural area will have to purchase, install and maintain a charging station in their garage.  

Putting a full charge on the battery of an electric vehicle takes several hours. If you have to access to charging station at all, you must be prepared to leave the car plugged in for several hours. This is certainly not practical for a trip across country.  

Most of these electric cars carry a small charger that runs off of 120 volt current, so that in a pinch, they can be plugged into house current to recharge the battery. In a rural region, such as is most of New Mexico, the governor had better require each electric vehicle to carry a heavy duty extension cord one mile long.  

I understand the governor’s desire to lead New Mexico toward becoming green, but let’s be practical and admit that electric vehicle are not for everybody, especially not for people in the rural part of New Mexico. 

Reynold Conger 

Rio Communities 

  

Correcting Allen’s history 

Editor: 

Recently, the News-Bulletin published a nice article on the legacy of the late Bosque Farms former mayor Carl Allen.  

Being mayor for 16 years, he accomplished many projects for the village, including much of the water and sewer systems, which currently serve both Bosque Farms and part of Peralta.  

However, in the interest of accuracy, one misconception should be addressed. Carl Allen did not build the multi-purpose path around the Bosque Farms loop, although his name is memorialized along it.  

The facts show that the steering committee for the path project started work in 2002, two years after Mr. Allen left office.  

The path was planned, engineered and constructed during the administration of former mayor Roger Baldwin. The final enabling ordinance was signed in May 2006 by former and in-coming mayor Wayne Ake shortly after he was elected following Baldwin’s administration. 

Sharon Eastman 

Bosque Farms