A convenient solution: Here’s how we manage to charge up more cars for long treks
If you’re worried about how we’re going to fuel all the electric cars we should be manufacturing here to stop burning so much carbon and ruining our air, consider this idea.
When crude was discovered to replace whale oil, the world descended on places like my home town, Tulsa, Oklahoma. It billed itself as the Oil Capital of the World, and when no one seemed to object — capitalize on it, we did.
Well, not “we,” as in all Tulsans. But you can see the lovely homes where “geologists” who relocated from Pennsylvania and elsewhere stashed their surplus dollars. There are so many early-20th-century oil mansions in Tulsa, a set of books about their historical homes records the stories of wealth dynasties created and inherited by oil production and its byproducts.
These brick mansions line now mid-city streets, though they were built near the Arkansas River for its, ahem, scenic aspects. Today, one has a perfectly unobstructed view of ugly circular oil containers located directly across the river, as if those jazz-age millionaires enjoyed late-afternoon moonshine while taking in their vast holdings just yonder in the distant sunset.
Their swank Okie lifestyle represented the tip of the iceberg of potential wealth the oil business could bring. Tulsa’s trickled-down benefits were things like a university, schools, libraries, music halls, art collections, related businesses and services. But these families and companies made millions, and their product poisoned everyone’s air. Contributions to the city and state, no matter how civic-centered, always benefited the oil business and its tributaries.
Our current problem is that there’s no existing “infrastructure” to power the electric equivalent of the Model T and her children, grandchildren and great-great-great grandchildren. Even though some of our first cars were electric, the business of processing crude oil was too intoxicating not to exploit, and it grew out of its britches.
In the self-conscious 1970s, it was rumored in Tulsa that local oil companies were soliciting alternative solar and wind patents. They were bought up and shelved, the thinking was, so that these companies could carry on polluting until it was time for them to rope and hog-tie the next source(s) of energy, and thereby maintain their monopolies.
Why are we developing electric cars, with no available, quick, convenient charging stations? I say there are lots of places, and they’re already up and running. In fact, the answer is in the question.
The convenience store.
What we used to call gas stations had no problem accommodating drivers once they realized that we wanted a soda and maybe a pit-stop with our fill up. The profits these handy marts make selling snacks, drinks and wiper fluid alone could probably pay for electric charging stations on the property.
Jobs program, anyone? Hire architects to re-design parking lots to add charging ports, and union labor to build them. Hire scientists to figure out how to speed up a 250-mile-range charge from several hours to 15 minutes. Leave some gas pumps until they ebb out of service, as fewer of them become necessary. There will always be gasoline, but we need to start cutting down.
Because our ability to breathe for many more generations depends on this, I believe it’s time for oil companies to step up. They’ve still got all the money. They already have the coffee and the hot rolling wieners, the freshly baked cookies and the bathrooms.
And their lungs are just as susceptible to smog as mine. The difference is they can change a sentence: From “We have no infrastructure” to “Look at this great idea.”
Simply plug in your imagination.
Reach Ellen at murphysister04@gmail.com
