Don't be Charlie Brown, choose electric

Do they take us for chumps? Once again the oil companies have drastically lowered the price of gas. Were we just being handily ripped off all summer? It reminds me of the Peanut's cartoon where Lucy holds the football for Charlie Brown to kick (Charlie Brown - Football). He pleads with her that he doesn't want to do it because he knows she always pulls the ball away at the last second making him kick the air and crash on his back. Lucy successfully persuades him that “this time” she won’t. Sure enough, good ole’ Charlie runs to kick the ball and, swoosh, Lucy snatches it away at the last second and Charlie is on his back again. Sound familiar?

There is a solution to the monopoly gas companies have on our transportation fuel, it's locally made, plentiful, and no further away than your closest electric wall socket. A broad range of plug-in hybrid electric and pure electric cars are available on the market today. These provide a practical local transportation solution to 80 percent of where we need to go in a car, whether it be work, school, shopping or friends, most of these trips are short and local.

Could one of your cars be electric? If so, think about never having to go to the gas station again. No tune ups, or oil and filter changes.  Most people would save over $2,000 dollars a year not buying gasoline and only spending about $300 to charge their car with electricity. Wouldn't it be nice to not have the football pulled out from under you again?

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.  It seems insane to continue burning finite resources, dumping tons of pollution and CO2 into the atmosphere, causing health problems and warming the planet when there's a simple solution in your electric plug at home.

If you get a chance to test drive a plug-in hybrid or all electric car, keep an open mind and imagine that vehicle fitting your life.  Don’t be a Charlie Brown and play the oil companies game. You do have a choice.

Ron Groves, Manager of Education and Outreach