How are you doing?

It's been a long time since I've sent out a newsletter, but I wanted to reach out and see how you're doing, you know, plague-wise. (Personally, I have some complaints, but mostly trivial ones.) How is it going in your neck of the woods? Are people wearing masks? Staying home? Flocking to the beach? Or something else? Hit reply if you've got the time, and let me know where you are and what's going on there. I'm curious.

What is this BS from Michael Moore?

So it's the 50th anniversary of Earth Day last week, and there we all were, social distancing, staying home, not going to Earth Day events, electric car stuck in the garage.And guess what Michael Moore did for Earth Day? Well, unfortunately, he celebrated by releasing his latest film, called Planet of the Humans, which is not up to his usual standards, to put it kindly.

If you haven't seen the film yet, it's free online at the link above. I thought this Arstechnica article sums it up pretty well:

"The topic of the film—released on YouTube just before Earth Day to throw shade on what it views as a corporate takeover of the day—is green energy. But if you’re thinking you might learn something about green energy from a film-length treatment of the topic, think again."

It's heavy on false and outdated information, but light on science.

Too bad, because there are serious problems that can arise in the intersection between money and environmentalism. I'd like our EV community to talk about those problems as we have done from time to time on Electric Cars are for Girls, like...

• What happens to batteries when our cars are done with them?
• Where are those minerals (like cobalt) that go into our batteries coming from?
• Does adoption of hydrogen fuel cell technology imply support for the tar sands pipelines?

...and similar.

We need to talk about the potential harms in a serious and transparent way to make sure we're not enthusiastically running over the vulnerable, so to speak, in our Teslas. But this? No. This "documentary" is not that discussion. I wish it were.

Let's Talk About Electric Cars, Second Edition.

Guess what I was doing on Earth Day, besides "staying home and saving lives" like everyone else?

I was releasing a new edition of Let's Talk About Electric Cars!

If you haven't read the first edition yet, that's okay. It's still available, and is now as cheap as Amazon will let me make it - 99 cents. The first edition was 8 of my most interesting and inspiring interviews with electric car people.

The new Second Edition is now up to 25 interviews. It's a full length book. And this time, there are girls!

For example...

• a retired paralegal who has converted her car to electric, and pioneered "assisted conversion" in her shop;
• an EAA chapter president whose first EV was a LEAF (the solar installer drove one, and let her take it for a spin) and now owns a Model 3;
• a Colorado woman who is a second-generation LEAF driver and a Nissan loyalist in a 2-EV family with a Bolt fan;
• a lawyer who bought a company that manufactures wheelchair NEVs because she couldn't find what she needed herself as a working woman who uses a wheelchair;
• an academic who is looking to be the fastest woman on a motorcycle, building and racing her own electric vehicles; and
• a retired school teacher who stood in line for five hours in the snow to order her Model 3 back in 2016 (remember that?) and it turned out to be worth every minute!

...and many more. I hope you like it.

If you love it, please leave me a good review on Amazon.

It's only available on Kindle right now, but I'm considering releasing a paperback version. Is this something you'd be interested in? Hit reply and let me know.

Drive Electric Earth Day Tribute

Finally, in case you missed it, there was an online Drive Electric Earth Day Tribute brought to you by Sierra Club, Plug In America, and Electric Auto Association, featuring a Q&A with Leilani Munter (race car driver) and Dan Neil (WSJ reporter) among others. You can find the recording here.

Thank you for your continued interest in electric cars!

Warmest regards,

Lynne Mason

Electric Cars are for Girls