Letters to the Editor (Jan. 4)

EV is a money-saver 

Editor: 

I read Reynolds Conger’s letter to the editor, “Electric Vehicles are not practical for rural areas.”  

Hopefully, I can add first-hand experience to addressing his concerns. My wife, Ann, and I purchased a Chevy Bolt, in Colorado Springs, four years ago. It’s the all-electric EV.  

We live 60 miles south of Albuquerque, so a minimum of 120-mile round-trip, which we do at least once a week. While range anxiety is a definite concern, on a long trip, we found that charging infrastructure is rapidly improving.  

We drive up to Creede, Colo., three or four times a summer. It’s 320 miles, six-hour trip, at best in an ICE (internal combustion engine) car. Add 10 minutes for charging vs. gassing up our Bolt along the way.  

This past spring, Jemez Mountain co-op added a fast charger in Espanola, and Colorado has fast chargers located at their towns, visitor centers — Alamosa four, Del Norte one, Creede one. So making the trip is easy. We prefer charging in Del Norte as it’s a fun place to spend 20 minutes. 

Last week, we drove to Ruidoso, a 160-mile trip. We fast charged at the Socorro plaza at the 2-month old fast chargers, for 15 minutes on our way down. We plugged into a stove plug (RV plug) with our level two charger overnight at the place we stayed, and returned home without stopping to charge, with 83 miles remaining. 

The Chevy Bolt has a 60 kWh battery, 250 mile range. So at $.15 a kilowatt hour for electricity, to completely charge a battery cost $9.  

A ICE car, getting 25 miles per gallon would burn through 10 gallons of gas. That would have cost $40 in Ruidoso or $35 here. But here’s the real cost savings. With more than 70,000 miles on the Bolt, not one oil change. Your time and money. Our one service, at 50,000 miles, $29.57. They rotated the tires.  

I figure that every 10,000 miles driving the Chevy Bolt,  saves us at least $1,000 in gas, oil changes, service, and there’s no catalytic converter to steal or unhealthy air into our lungs. 

Today, a new Chevy Bolt list at $26,000 plus shipping. With the $7,500 federal tax rebate that’s $20,000, while the average new car today cost $48,000. After driving 100,000 miles, you basically have paid $10,000 for an EV.  

GM and Ford announced that they are adopting Tesla’s charging system. This will further simplify charging an EV. You simply plug it in, no apps, no credit cards. It automatically bills your account. Even simpler than filling up at the gas station.  

So yes, there are some issues with EV road trips. Ninty-five percent of our charging is in our garage. A stove plug, and a $450 level two charger. But more and more fast chargers are being installed, making fast charging much easier.  

The bottom line, EV are way less expensive to operate. You might miss the rum rum, but  they’re really fun to drive. 

Ward B. McCartney III 

Belen 

  

Worried about WIPP 

Editor: 

We have many nuclear waste contaminations that impact mostly rural communities. Our tribal communities are also especially vulnerable as we saw during the pandemic due to the unfortunately high death rates.  

While nuclear energy is better and cleaner than oil and burning fossil fuels, the waste is just as dangerous and since New Mexico houses the nation’s only deep geological long-lived radioactive waste repository called WIPP. It’s located in a southeastern New Mexican town called Carlsbad, which I find concerning considering one of our research and conservatory caves (Carlsbad Caverns) is located close to the radioactive waste location.  

I fear that if the WIPP had a leak, it could negatively impact the cave and the species that live in the cave that we research and are activity monitoring to help preserve the species there especially the bats who are already threatened enough as is by other factors.                  

Celeste Wagar 

Los Lunas