California Urged To Stay The Course On Electric Cars, Help Owners Charge Cheaper

Gas prices are falling: Michigan has signs advertising regular at $1.99 per gallon.

It's now below $3 a gallon even in California, which continues to be the focal point for electric-car adoption.

Now an electric utility CEO has joined with an environmental advocate to urge that Californians stay the course in their adoption of plug-in electric vehicles.

At the same time, an advocacy group urges Californian electric-car owners to learn about off-peak charging rates that may cut their costs even further.

An analysis by Plug-In America just this week showed conclusively that electric-car sales do not vary with gas prices.

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But that hasn't stopped a lot of headlines lately saying that they do.

Perhaps in response, Edison International CEO Ted Craver joined Roland Hwang, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, in penning an editorial last week in the Los Angeles Daily News.

The headline sums it up: "California must push ahead with electric vehicles despite low gas prices."

The pair argue that with half of California's total energy consumption going into transportation, drivers send $70 billion a year out of state.

Driving on locally generated electricity would keep much of that cash in the state, they suggest, noting that the greater efficiency of electric cars means that their drivers pay the equivalent of $1.10 per gallon.

As the piece states, bluntly, "Our national petroleum habit remains expensive, polluting, and is making us sick."