FEATURE • HEADLINE FOR STORY
DEAR DOT
dot DEAR
Dear Dot,
I can’t afford a new electric vehicle. Is there a way to make my internal combustion engine more energy efficient? Does it matter what grade fuel I use? – Poppy MacCormack, Oak Bluffs
Dear Poppy, Illustrations Elissa Turnbull How do I green my ride if I can’t afford an electric car? And how, eggs-actly, can I support happy hens? Dot answers your thorniest questions from a perch on her porch.
For too long, the notion of being environmentally responsible has been tangled up with the purchase of new eco-friendly things. Electric vehicles, for instance. But using what we have as responsibly as we can is often more virtuous, so your question is a good one. I took your query to Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity. Becker worked hard to get achievable fuel-efficiency standards passed in 2012 by the Obama administration only
to watch them be gutted in 2017 under Trump. But Becker is a man who does not accept defeat, nor should we. At the top of Becker’s list of how to reduce our fuel emissions is a simple one: Drive less. “Every gallon burned emits 25 pounds of CO2 whether in a Hummer or a hybrid,” he says, which is why efficiency and electric vehicles are so important. Don’t buy premium gas unless your car requires it, he says, as “higher levels of ethanol — E-10 is currently standard — will only reduce mpg.” If premium gas is simply recommended rather than required, you can get the same performance from regular fuel. It also doesn’t matter which brand of gasoline you buy. Becker has personally boycotted Exxon since the Valdez spill in 1989, 32 years ago, a level of conviction I tip my hat to. My grudges are measured in the lifespan of a fruitfly.
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