Many electric cars cost less than gas cars
7-minute read
This Week
Many electric cars cost less than gas cars
Free electricity from clean energy in several countries
Building all-electric replacement homes after the L.A. fires
Rooftop solar subscriptions coming to California
Turning old electric car batteries into big utility batteries
Training poor, disadvantaged areas for disasters
Brief climate news
Climate jargon explained
Contacts for Santa Cruz County
Click on the underlined links to learn more.
About me
I’m Rex Sanders, a science writer who’s lived in Santa Cruz County more than 20 years. Each week I check dozens of reliable sources for climate news that affects our County. Focused on how we can create a better future together.
Many electric cars cost less than gas cars
Electric cars at a public fast charging station, from the video
Analysis: The average gasoline car costs about $50,000 now. And new electric cars usually cost a lot more to buy than similar gas cars. But that’s changing.
“One of the top selling gas cars right now is the 2025 Chevrolet Equinox, with a starting price just under $30,000,” said Kristina Zagame of Energy Sage. “It’s twin, the Equinox EV, starts at just under $32,000. That’s only a $2,000 difference.”
“We got out of our high-end EVs, but what we decided to do is double down on our affordable ones,” said Jim Farley, CEO of Ford. The company plans to ship lower-priced electric cars and trucks within a year.
Many electric cars coming off 3-year leases cost less than similar used gas cars. Plus you can still get state and utility rebates for new and used electric cars, and faster home chargers. Routine maintenance on electric cars costs very little. And they are quieter, more fun to drive, and help with climate change.
One EV owner had this story. “A friend asked me how long it takes to charge my electric car. I told him about two minutes. One minute to plug it in when I get home for the day, and one more minute to unplug it the next morning.” That’s less time than waiting in line and filling up at gas stations. And much less frustrating.
Even in Santa Cruz County with high PG&E electricity rates, charging an electric car at home costs about 1/3 less than public fast charging. And with special EV rates you can save even more.
Quotes: “If you use public fast charging, it’s very comparable to gasoline [in cost per mile],” said Tom Moloughney, who reviews electric car chargers.
“The [electric car] we have - zero maintenance,” said EV owner Jonny Lieberman. “I probably spent $15 on windshield wiper fluid over three years. That’s it.”
Limitations: A lot of people are afraid to buy electric cars. Except EVs catch fire far less often than gasoline cars, but they make the news far more often. Recent electric car batteries will last about a half-a-million miles. The rest of the car will fall apart long before that.
Actions: Your next car or truck should be electric, just to save money!
Source: Kristina Zagame, Energy Sage, 3-minute video
Free electricity from clean energy in several countries
Model wearing clothes blowing in the wind, with wind turbines in the background, from the article
Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark often have “too much” electric power from wind turbines. So they give it away for hours at a time nearly every day. Sometimes they’ll pay big customers to use more power for a while to avoid problems with the electric grid. But homes and businesses still must pay for delivery and, of course, taxes.
This year most Australian homes and businesses will get 3 hours of free electricity in mid-day. This comes from the abundance of solar panels in that sunny country. And new research says this could easily spread to other countries with much less sun, including Germany and Britain.
With a few rule changes, we could do this in California now. You and I could use free electricity for mid-day activities like washing and drying clothes, heating or cooling homes, heating hot water tanks, or charging electric cars.
“It’s now clear you can’t expect low-cost electricity by burning things,” said Dennis Wamsted at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “There’s a lot of political theater in Washington, D.C., but that doesn’t change the fundamentals of the transition. They can slow the transition, but they cannot stop it.”
Ask your state senator and assembly member to work on free mid-day electricity for everyone in California. Check Contacts for Santa Cruz County below.
Olver Milman, Atmos, 9-minute read
Building all-electric replacement homes after the L.A. fires
All-electric home under construction after the 2025 Eaton fire, from the article
Many survivors of the 2025 fires in Altadena and Pacific Palisades are rebuilding their homes without a natural gas connection. They’ll install efficient electric heat pumps and appliances instead. All-electric homes have much less indoor air pollution. And they don’t burn or explode from gas leaks, get lower total utility bills, and create much less climate pollution.
“I’m a firm believer that climate change played a big role in how intense and how widespread these fires were,” said fire survivor Leo Cheng. “Using [dirty fuels] in this day and age is not a good idea.”
Some survivors are using free, pre-approved plans for all-electric homes. One catalog includes home styles that reflect the pre-fire architecture of Altadena.
The state offers rebates up to $10,000 for rebuilding all-electric. And for big home batteries, certain heat pump water heaters, and low-income homeowners.
Many survivors of our own 2020 CZU Lightning Fires are struggling to rebuild almost 6 years later for many reasons. Including complex and costly county requirements. And no free, pre-approved building plans.
But most of them should qualify for rebates to rebuild all-electric for healthier, safer, climate-friendly homes that cost less to run.
Blanca Begert, LA Times, 6-minute read
Rooftop solar subscriptions coming to California
Rooftop solar by subscription, from the article
What if getting rooftop solar power was simple? Terra Energy plans to offer solar subscriptions in California. For more than 10 years they’ve had subscribers in Mexico, and 3 years in Florida. They are just getting started in Texas, including big home batteries to help with blackouts. More than 98% of Terra’s 10,000 customers renew their subscriptions every 3 years.
This seems much simpler than solar panel leases, power contracts, or loans. Terra takes care of permits, installation, maintenance, repairs, and panel insurance. There’s no cancellation fee after 3 years. They remove the panels and restore your roof if you cancel. Be sure to read and understand all the fine print!
“Our approach is to make a product that is very digestible and easy to sign up for from the customer side,” said Jaime Martinez, CEO of Terra Energy. “It’s a short term commitment like a car lease or cell phone service.”
The company adds new areas when they can beat the cost of utility electricity. Terra plans to offer subscriptions in Southern California in a couple of months. And PG&E electricity costs more.
Let’s hope they add Santa Cruz County soon. Save money and help our climate? Sign me up!
Ben Zientara, PV magazine, 4-minute read
Turning old electric car batteries into big utility batteries
Dozens of old electric car batteries turned into one big battery, from the article
For many years, Redwood Materials ground up old batteries to recycle them into new batteries. A lot of the bigger batteries came from electric cars and trucks. And many of those old batteries had years of useful life left in them.
So the company developed a way to make them into big utility batteries. Each car battery stands a couple of feet from the others for cooling. They are wired together and managed with special software that makes them look like one big battery. When a car battery finally wears out after many years, it’s sent to recycling, replaced by another one. Now the company has a contract to set up 20 more big batteries
Soon Redwood Materials could have enough car batteries to supply half the U.S. market for big utility batteries. And they cost much less than new ones.
We could use these in Santa Cruz County to store clean solar power and wind power for overnight use, reduce blackouts, and lower the cost of electricity. While helping with climate change.
Steve Hanley, Clean Technica, 6-minute read
Training poor, disadvantaged areas for disasters
Map of the areas trained for disasters in South Carolina, from the article
A pilot program in South Carolina trained two poor, disadvantaged areas on how to help themselves prepare, respond, and recover from disasters. Including climate-related disasters like heat waves, floods, and rising seas. Disadvantaged areas often have many immigrants that don’t know much English language. And they can face barriers due to race, age, gender, sexuality, disability, and other factors.
The program created an online course, smartphone apps, and public school teaching guides. For the first time in the U.S., they focused on the languages and cultures of each area. The pilot program also gave some money for disaster preparations. Poor areas with other languages and cultures are usually hit the hardest during disasters.
Map of poor or disadvantaged census tracts in Santa Cruz County, modified from the California Energy Commission
Hope something like this comes to our county soon. If you know someone that helps our poor or disadvantaged communities, let them know about this project.
Daniel Kilpatrick and others, GeoHealth journal, 38-minute read
Brief climate news
A Monterey County jail will save millions using a solar power and battery contract with no upfront costs. We should do this for Santa Cruz County jails, too. Solar Power World, 2-minute read
Our county is in the first stage of drought. Usually means fire season has started, and soil needs irrigation. U.S. Drought Monitor, 3-minute read
Drought is likely here through the end of July. U.S. Seasonal Drought Outlook, 2-minute read
Climate jargon explained
Big utility battery: Utility-sized rechargeable battery that stores clean electricity for later use, also called a battery energy storage system or BESS
Clean energy: Cheaper energy from the sun, wind, dams, or underground heat, that creates very little air pollution or climate pollution
Climate: Long-term weather pattern somewhere Climate change
Climate friendly: Better for our climate than other choices
Climate pollution: Gases in the air that trap the Sun’s heat and cause climate change, mainly carbon dioxide and methane, also called greenhouse gases or carbon pollution
Dirty fuel: Coal, oil, gasoline, diesel, propane, or natural gas that creates air pollution and climate pollution, also called fossil fuel
Drought: Unusually long time without rain or snow
Electric car: Car that runs on an electric motor and a large rechargeable battery
Electric truck: Truck that runs on an electric motor and a large rechargeable battery
Electric vehicle (EV): Any kind of vehicle that runs on an electric motor and a large rechargeable battery, including cars, trucks, trains, and boats
Fast EV charger: Electric vehicle charger that runs much faster than home chargers
Heat pump: Two-way air conditioner that can cool or heat a building, heat a hot water tank, or boil water for factories
Heat wave: Days or weeks of unusually hot weather
Induction range: Very efficient electric stove that uses magnetism to heat pans
Methane: Climate pollution gas 80 times worse than carbon dioxide, second-worst cause of climate change, but it doesn’t last as long
Natural gas: Fuel pumped from underground, almost all methane, that adds climate pollution when it leaks, and when it’s burned for power or heat
Rising seas: Increase in sea level caused by global overheating that melts glaciers and expands seawater, also called sea level rise
Rooftop solar power: Solar panels mounted on a roof, supplying electricity
Solar panel: Panel that turns sunlight into electricity
Solar power: Clean electricity made from sunlight, mostly using solar panels
Wind power: Clean electricity made from wind blowing through wind turbines
Wind turbine: Tall machine with long fan-like blades that makes clean electricity when the wind blows
More at climatejargon.com
Contacts for Santa Cruz County
City council: Watsonville, Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz, or Capitola, depending on where you live
County supervisors
County Resource Conservation District
Regional Transportation Commission (SCCRTC)
Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) and PG&E
State Assembly: Gail Pellerin, Dawn Addis, or Robert Rivas, depending on where you live
State Senate: John Laird
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), Air Resources Board (CARB), and Energy Commission (CEC)
Governor Gavin Newsom
U.S. Congress: Jimmy Panetta or Zoe Lofgren, depending on where you live
U.S. Senate: Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff.
Unrelated advice
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.
William Shakespeare