It is a welcome change to have grown ups in government recognizing the importance of science and particularly in respecting the environment. The health of our environment has been a legitimate concern for 50 years to lessen pollution and reduce the use of carbon fuels. The migration from coal to oil to natural gas has been espoused by scientists and practiced for a long time. The United States has been in a global leadership position regarding the environment. Then we had a president with 50 year old energy hindsight approach for plans and a priority of obtaining votes from older coal miners and fossil fuel energy workers as a priority over the environment. Trump even attempted to set back EPA policies that same 50 years to benefit has beens.
Effectively, companies and even people have moved well beyond these attempted moves by dinosaurs. Look around when you are driving tomorrow and you are bound to see a Tesla – fully electric vehicle. Seems I see more and more Teslas on the road by the day. Beyond Tesla, recent announcements by both General Motors and Ford that they are moving their iconic brands to electric – Corvette, Mustang, F-150, and GMC to name a few. A start up - Rivian threatens to revolutionize the pick up truck market out from under Ford. If anyone thinks these are moves only cooked up after the recent election, you are very narrow minded. These moves have taken years of research and planning to prepare to bring EV’s to market in volumes. This is one avenue of job creation that dwarfs the coal industry.
Large energy companies have also been diversifying away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy sources for years. They have been revising their sourcing to ‘clean energy’ alternatives and away from carbon fuels and creating new jobs. Again, the new job creation is 10x the impact of existing carbon fuels. Retaining and growing coal and petroleum based resources and supposed jobs was the political stunt to influence other like minded dinosaurs. Make no mistake, there are millions of dinosaurs still in existence. GM even announced recently that their entire product line will be electric powered by 2035. Non-US auto makers are even further ahead.
Large companies have been following science, energy sourcing, and environmental concerns and adapting their strategies and product lines as quickly as they possibly can – the turning an aircraft carrier in a bathtub analogy. People adapting to change are finding it extremely difficult to undertake ANY changes in their world. We need people to adapt to change a little step at a time. Behavioral change can be gradual and incremental. Even the smallest step related to reducing energy use or recycling is a step in the right direction.
Electrical vehicles have been historically linked to their creation in the early 1900’s and manufactured here in Amesbury. The picture above is of a 1913 Bailey Electric and is one of those vehicles. It is being stored and on display at CI Works. It is owned by the great grandson of the founder of Bailey Electric - Bart Bailey.
A large deterrent to date impacting the roll out of electric vehicles is the lack of an available charging infrastructure throughout the US. These would be the gas station alternatives. While the efficiency of these vehicles and their travel range per charge has greatly increased, there needs to be more charging stations located in key places where people need them. The other picture included here is of some of the EV charging stations we have located at CI Works. People go to work and more will be returning in the future, so having charging stations located at their workplace will be a convenience for companies, their employees, and their customers. We have now invested in the required EV infrastructure by adding these 10 units.
Do your part for the future!