Lean Mean Green Machine
Full Speed Ahead for Electric Vehicles Despite Hurdles
If you think you're seeing more electric vehicles on your local streets, you are. If you think this constitutes a boon for the EV market, not exactly.
On Nov. 28, the Wall Street Journal reported, some 3,900 U.S. car dealers sent a letter to President Biden seeking relief “from his onerous and unrealistic EV sales mandate.” The dealers say electric vehicles are piling up on their lots. Demand for EVs just isn't keeping up with production.
#3 Electrifying Our Old Oak Park Home: Appliances
As of this writing, we have installed solar panels on our roof (giving us a source of free renewable electricity), switched out our gas furnace with electric heat pumps, and replaced all gas appliances with electric equivalents in our 100-year-old Oak Park home. We have shut off our gas service and upgraded our car to an electric vehicle (EV), charging it basically for free at home, eliminating our reliance on polluting gasoline with its rising costs.
#2 Electrifying Our Old Oak Park Home: Heat Pumps
Oak Park Church Preaches the Green Gospel
Editor’s note: Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church will host an in person double feature for the One Earth Film Fest at 6:30 p.m. Friday, March 10: “The Falconer” + “Mardi & The Whites.” Doors open 45 minutes early to enjoy refreshments, visit with community partners, check in/register, and get best seats. Free registration here.
Located just 20 minutes by bicycle from Frank Lloyd Wright’s celebrated house in Oak Park, Illinois, Euclid Avenue United Methodist Church is the Village’s epicenter of sustainability initiatives. The 22,500-square-foot church was built in 1900 and remained the same, more or less, until the early 2010’s, when its leaders bit the green bullet. By 2014, they had completed two major energy-saving upgrades to the building.
Navajo Filmmaker Creates 'Powerlands' as Act of Resistance
Editor’s note: “Powerlands” will screen as part of the One Earth Film Fest on Tuesday, March 7, at 6:30 p.m. CST, both virtually and in person at two locations: Pilot Project Brewing in Chicago and Oak Park Public Library in Oak Park. Get tickets for all options here.
Ivey-Camille Manybeads Tso is a young Navajo filmmaker who investigates the displacement of Indigenous people and the devastation of the environment caused by the same chemical companies exploiting the land where she was born. Her award-winning documentary, “Powerlands,,” chronicles the eerily similar struggles of Indigenous communities across Colombia, the Philippines, Mexico, and Standing Rock. Despite being worlds apart, these communities face the same battles against the same big energy companies, like Peabody, BHP and Glencore.