Stance: Decrease oil, increase EVs/EV infrastructure and vehicles. contact option: Mr. Josh Hahn, Assistant Head of Hotchkiss School (formerly worked at Lville) on EV infrastructure.
Article:
According to the EV Charging Summit, “the cost of batteries for electric vehicles has dropped more than 80% since 2012” (EV Charging Summit, 2023). This cost reduction has helped to make electric cars more affordable for consumers. We explored the EV infrastructure, which has constantly evolved over the past few years, and compared the changes present at Lawrenceville to the changes seen by Mr. Josh Hahn. At Lawrenceville, the school has shifted its focus from using oil and gas to solar energy, as seen in the solar panel fields by the farm and EV charging stations located by the athletic buildings. Similarly, Mr. Hahn, who is the Assistant Head of Hotchkiss School, stated that his school has offered free electric charging to the faculty and staff, which “has been extremely cost-effective for those who have decided to switch to an EV.” Not only has the EV infrastructure decreased the usage of natural gas, contributing to pollution, but the boom in the EV infrastructure has been increasingly affordable, particularly for people at high schools and colleges across the country. At Lawrenceville, the increasing number of EV charging stations has encouraged the usage of EV vehicles, which continues to rise over the years. According to the United States Energy Information Administration, gasoline consumption continues to rise in the country and gas-powered vehicles continue to be bought at an extraordinary rate (USEIA, 2023). With this in mind, the EV infrastructure is still relatively new and is taking some time to fully develop and dominate the vehicle and energy industry. Although the EV infrastructure and industry are still relatively new and fresh, Mr. Hahn has noticed that it “has furthered our carbon initiative,” as his school fits the evolution of EVs into their school budget. This shift to the EV infrastructure has also impacted the Lawrenceville School, as the school continues to use natural gas while relying on solar energy. While the EVs have helped toward the carbon initiative, Mr Hahn said “from the school’s perspective, it has not been very cost effective” however he also stated they “feel it is a good cost to have embedded in our operating budget” which is a result of the reduced carbon emissions.
Like many other schools across the country, Lawrenceville has been hesitant to fully immerse into a costly implementation of more EV chargers throughout campus, as many still drive gas-powered vehicles. Connecting to Leopold’s Land Ethic and Kimmerer’s readings, we should not brush off the environmental impacts that fossil fuels create because there is no price tag on the beauty of nature, that is slowly being diminished by unnecessary and harmful resources. But Lawrenceville has done a good job of carefully incorporating solar energy and straying away from the use of fossil fuels, as the school has a total of 24,934 solar panels, which offsets over 4,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Additionally, the Lawrenceville School has six LEED-certified buildings on campus to improve energy efficiency. Fulling converting and investing in the EV infrastructure and decreasing oil and gas on campus is nearly impossible right now but the school has strategically added more solar energy, as well as bought into the EV infrastructure. Looking ahead to what Lawrenceville and so many schools could do in the future, including Mr. Hahn’s school, we explored what and how decreasing certain energy supplies, like coal and oil, would do for greenhouse gas net emissions. The energy sources that we rely on every day directly impact global warming and therefore contribute to the temperature increase on Earth. While experimenting with the EnROADS simulator, we found that slightly decreasing the use of fossil fuels and increasing renewable energy sources, decreased greenhouse gas net emissions and also the projected rising temperature increase.
As EV batteries continue to become more accessible and cheaper, demand for EVs will certainly rise. Supporting Kimmerer’s argument, we all, as humans living on Earth, should feel real ethical obligations toward the environment and preserve the rich and unique landscapes and cultures on this Earth. Although the EV infrastructure continues to develop and evolve with more funding and resources available, it is vital that the Lawrenceville School and so many other schools across the country and worldwide, invest in electric and green energy and slowly fade away from the use of fossil fuels.
Bibliography
U.S. Energy Information Administration – EIA – independent statistics and analysis. Use of energy for transportation – U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). (n.d.). https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/use-of-energy/transportation.php
Summit, E. C. (2023a, January 26). 36 EV facts you should know. EV Charging Summit Blog. https://evchargingsummit.com/blog/ev-facts-you-should-know/
Image: https://en-roads.climateinteractive.org/scenario.html?v=25.2.0
