Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, and Giving Back to the Community with Dory Larsen

Welcome back to Environmental Professionals Radio, Connecting the Environmental Professionals Community Through Conversation, with your hosts Laura Thorne and Nic Frederick! 

On today’s episode, we talk with Dory Larsen, Electric Transportation Program Manager  for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE), about clean energy, electric vehicles, and giving back to the community! Read her full bio below.

Help us continue to create great content! If you’d like to sponsor a future episode hit the support podcast button or visit www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com/sponsor-form

Showtimes:
0:00  Intro

0:56  Shout outs

1:49  Nic and Laura's segment- Methods of transportation and their benefits

7:33  Interview with Dory Larsen starts

12:34  Dory Larsen talks about electric vehicles

20:35  Why Dory feels it's important to get involved and give back to the community

23:02  Dory's hobbies

31:25  Dory discusses clean energy

43:16  Outro

Please be sure to ✔️subscribe, ⭐rate and ✍review. 

This podcast is produced by the National Association of Environmental Professions (NAEP). Check out all the NAEP has to offer at NAEP.org.

Connect with Dory Larsen at
linkedin.com/in/dory-larsen
dory@cleanenergy.org
www.cleanenergy.org
www.electrifythesouth.org

Guest Full Bio:
Dory joined the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy in 2017 and was named Electric Transportation Program Manager in 2020. She is working to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles by promoting the growth of electric vehicle ownership and supporting EV friendly policy and programs. Central to her work is educating and engaging stakeholders, identifying strategic policy to propel EV usage, and advocating for comprehensive EV infrastructure. She serves on the Board of Drive Electric Florida and Chairs the Tarpon Springs Sustainability Advisory Committee. 

Before joining SACE, Dory worked as an instructional trainer and as a science educator in the public-school system. She also led a community action campaign to keep massive development from changing the landscape of the Anclote River. She is a graduate of the University of South Florida with a Master of Public Health degree and received her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Florida Southern College. She is passionate about helping people see the strength in working collectively to solve problems. She is an avid reader and lover of the Florida sunshine where she and her husband are raising their two sons.

Music Credits
Intro: Givin Me Eyes by Grace Mesa
Outro: Never Ending Soul Groove by Mattijs Muller

Transcript

Transcripts are auto-transcribed

[Intro]

Nic 
Hello and welcome to EPR with your favorite environmental enthusiast, Nick and Laura. On today's episode, we gave our shout outs, Laura and I  discuss methods of transportation and their benefits. We chat with Dori Larsen about clean energy, all things electric vehicles and giving back to your community. And finally, the concept of a scientist wasn't invented until the 17th century. Prior to that designation scientists are actually called natural philosophers, which if I'm being honest actually sounds pretty cool, I'm going to be. Can we go back to that maybe we had a great time in college I don't know it's just sounds, it sounds fun. So that's pretty neat and badly keeping that up to you guys, please be sure to subscribe, rate and review. Hit that music.

[Shout outs]

Laura 
You may have heard us give out shout outs for the 2021 NAEP awards on our episodes recently, none of that would be possible without Stacy Woodson, who led the award selection committee. Thank you, Stacy for all that you do, please be sure to share your promotions, new jobs professional and project awards with us on the EPR website, and don't forget to register for NAEP's coastal resiliency webinar happening on August 26, where we'll be discussing coastal and climate resiliency success stories webinar features Hollie Schmidt, Doug Bellomo and Dr Rob Young, it's also narrated by an amazing, talented an all around great guy. Guess who wrote that. Nic Frederick

Nic 
Yeah. A hold over from last week so

Laura 
if you would like to sponsor a future episode, head on over to www.environmentalprofessionalsradio.com and check out the sponsor forum for details. Now let's get to our segment.

Nic
Sweet.

Nic 
Who was it telling us that airplanes are considering doing that for flights.

Laura 
We didn't talk about it but

Nic 
they're considering like, like the drop down menu, like our drop down like seating, like you're on a roller coaster, and you're just hanging there.

Laura  
Yeah for 4 hours no

Nic  
four hours that sounds awful. But that's what they're trying to get more people like that sounds like yeah exactly. We're gonna cradle you in the air like a child.

Laura 
doing that like in the Hyperloop where you're going to be in your destination and 20 minutes but yeah not for the four hour flights, when you're trying to like read a book or something.

Nic 
Yeah, exactly. Or work, how are you going to type on your computer. When you're just dangling there like a child

Laura 
or two like, how do you layer people I don't want some sneezing in the back of my head or something.

Nic  
There's actually another cause this all kind of neat stuff they're trying to try to pack people in, you know, in different ways, there was another one I saw where it was like a two tier system. There's another one I saw was like a tier system, right where like, you're basically, when people go down and sit down and take two steps up and they're sitting above, and I'm looking at this diagram and I'm like, that person's butt is at that face like I don't care if there's a barrier or not, if that person farts I'm out, I'm leaving this plane. I can't do it, you know, that's just like you got to be kidding me. But it would be would be, it would fit more people, but somehow they did the engineering, the science behind it. To say this would fit people but I object. I'll take top bunk, please.

Laura 
I hope COVID has eliminated the need to try to trap more people into a smaller spaces.

Nic  
No, it hasn't. It's gonna be crazy.

Laura 
I'm gonna start taking the train, I think, yeah,

Nic  
it's, yeah, train gives you more space, it's always, I don't know if you've done train travel before but like, because I'm like every time I take it because the one from Raleigh to DC is nice, but it's only runs certain times, like there's only like three times, and it is great, it is glorious, and then that slows down and stops for no reason. My favorite is when it's like summer and like oh the tracks, too hot, we have to slow it down, I'm like what.

Laura
I never heard of that one.

Nic
Apparently that's the thing. And, you know, it'll slip off the track if it's too hot and they're going too fast, which you know, I'm all for safety, I don't want to, I don't want the train to leave a track either, but it just means that like, you know, they say it's five hours but it's really six and a half. I don't know how they can get away with that, but it's, it's not it's never short, it's always faster to drive,

Laura 
but it's more convenient still to be able to like sit and do work while you're on the train. Yeah, diminishing returns the longer the trip is, you know, the farther it is like well I could get there and about the same time. I love the train between Tampa and like South Florida like Fort Lauderdale, Miami, because it's the same as it takes to drive, and you can arrive there refreshed you've got some work done. Right. But when you're trying to go from like New York, to Virginia. You got like three days.

Nic 
Yeah, there's a real challenge there and I don't know if you know the train system but there's actually like a place. I think it's Union Station, where they actually have to switch cars. So you go from like the diesel power to the electric power. So if you want to get to New York, you have to wait there for them to switch to the electric car so that will go to New York. That happened once, where I was trying to do that exact thing, and they made the switch, and then the electric now is going back so like the diesel engine, I think it didn't work. And so we were just sitting there in the middle of summer, sweating, for like an hour and a half while they switched. Got a new diesel engine and take us back, like the AC wasn't working, nothing, it just didn't work for whatever reason, was crazy.

Laura  
Last train I took was from here in Syracuse to Toledo, Ohio, in February, and that train goes leaves Syracuse something like midnight arrives in Toledo something like still midnight. Yeah, all dark the train stations are closed, and it was okay but like trying to sleep unless you have an actual sleeping cars like, Yeah, not really all that possible every couple minutes I'm waking up thinking the trains flipping over all kinds of like snow and ice. The very entry part of the doors like it's crazy, it's kind of neat but, yeah,

Nic 
we're not doing it again, again, but not to despair, it's strange, like romantic notion, it really is and you get all this space like you sit down, you're like, I, what, you know, I can actually like stretch out, okay, I get two bags, you know, that kind of stuff. Nice. Yeah,

Laura  
I still want to do there's train trips you can take through like the Canadian Rockies. Oh wow. Yeah, There's, there's some luxury train travel that is to be had, I would really like to do.

Nic 
I did that in Alaska, actually, back, kind of, yeah, train through the it was so cool, it's cool. I like a little restaurant car and they bring you down like for the time to eat. And they had like birch tree ice cream or something like that, which Yeah, was delicious. It was some of the best ice cream I've ever had. It was so good. But yeah, that was really really cool because I had one of those like open air trains out here but open like basically like a, like a skylight, but everywhere. You call that so you could see out, you could see wildlife, you can see mountains you can see, the rivers on us and it was really neat sounds really cool.

Laura 
Yeah, cool, let's get to our interview. Cool.

[Interview with Dory Larson starts]

Laura
Okay, welcome back to EPR today we have a special guest Dorie Larsen on the show, and a special circumstance, I'm actually sitting with Dory in makeshift studio in her house, so if we sound different, that might be why Dory and I have been friends since middle school so I'm super thrilled that we're both environmental professionals, and are here able to have this conversation today, so welcome Dory.

Dory Larsen
Thank you. Pleasure to be with you.

Laura
Awesome. You're currently in the role of electric transportation program manager with the southern Alliance for Clean Energy which we also call SACE, and as Nick pointed out that means six and Spanish. You're also one of the most tenacious environmental professionals, I know, and always fighting for the environment here in your hometown of Tarpon Springs, and in Florida, and now even regionally. So, but you didn't always start out doing this type of work. So, what did you originally want to do.

Dory Larsen 
I wasn't really sure exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up, I have a background in biology I love like learning about nature and being outside, and then eventually I got a master's degree in public health, which I didn't use directly right after I taught. I do love teaching and educating people about ideas and sharing ideas and having that, you know that dialogue and people come around to an idea so, but I've always had, like, the environment in my heart and, you know, my love for nature and wanting to protect that.

Nic 
So So what drew you to SACE, and what do you do for them now.

Dory Larsen 
So what drew me to SACE, is they are a regional nonprofit organization so I wanted to do that nonprofit work, and they are small and nimble, very much like honeybadger kind of, you know, get it done.

Nic  
Yeah sure,

Dory Larsen 
so I really love that about our organization is that we're nimble and able to have really big impact. We do all sorts of work, advocacy work, We also do our own research. And because we're a membership organization we have standings with Public Service Commission's throughout the southeast. So we're able to intervene and rake cases that have huge impacts on people's lives, and a lot of people, you know don't even know that their public service commission exists and there's so. But I also do a lot of, you know, education and outreach and that still is one of my passions.

Nic  
Gotcha, you have a case in particular you're working on now.

Dory Larsen  
There are a couple of things happening across the region do Go Electric Florida has a filing in North Carolina. They also have a rate case that is scheduled to be heard coming up to just past one which is Tampa Electric Company. So yeah, we've been encased in lots of states, lots of different filings, there's lots of action happening with electric transportation right now which is exciting because there had been a long time where there wasn't a whole lot of action.

Laura 
Right, I feel like when he first started it was like demoing cars and getting people to sign the commitment to make the switch, and then all of a sudden I'm talking to her and she's like yeah we're talking to lobbyists and we're doing this and we're talking to, even like to read just tell me about in North Carolina.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, so the space has really exploded nationally, internationally, I mean they're the really the market has opened up, and is just going like gangbusters. So there's opportunities that you know originally, especially in the southeast there hasn't been as much action and traction coming out at the state level and there certainly wasn't very much happening at the federal level, the past couple of years.

Laura 
So I feel like your role has changed a lot since you first started when we first started, there was mostly like doing demos and giving people rides and stuff and, and test driving the cars and now more and more when I talk to you, it's more about advocacy, and we're getting more involved in these cases and just seems much more complex. So how's it changed.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, there's just been a huge uptick in interest from every single part of the market, the automakers have made huge commitments legislators are starting to get into the space, the utility regulators are taking more of a responsible role. So there's just a lot more happening a lot more conversations a lot more, you know, action so and big scale, you know, which is exciting.

Laura 
Yeah. Do you feel like you got in, like, at a good time.

Dory Larsen  
Absolutely, yeah, it's kind of funny because though, really having to have this tremendous learning curve, in my, you know knowledge base of understanding our electric systems, and then our transportation systems, and everyone's learning about electric transportation at the same time so it's kind of cool.

Laura 
Yeah, so as far as like companies taking the charge and the companies that are leading the way, do you think Tesla's like a big part of everyone else and who else is really pushing this forward

Dory Larsen 
100%! I mean Elon Musk is got you know his own kooky stuff, but, yeah, for sure, like, please stop talking. But I mean, the vision to transition our transportation system was there at the beginning. And, you know, he was able to take that money stimulus money from the last time the economy was in the downturn, put into building an electric transportation company from the ground up and make it a profitable company at this point is just amazing.

Nic 
Yeah, for sure. And you mentioned like you know the other automakers are catching up and I think they're maybe a little slow, just at the start but you know just recently Honda announced that they're planning to have all their vehicles be electric and by 2040 which is just remarkable. But who else would you say are industry leaders here. And where do you hope the US will be with EVs in the next 10 years.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, Nissan also was a pretty early mover in the space of the Nissan LEAF has been around for over 10 years now. They haven't really been as innovative recently and some of the other automakers have made huge commitments. So Chevy bolt and volt. Are you know big legacy models that have been around for a while, Volkswagens starting to get into the space, you know, yes, partially because of the diesel-gate scandal. They get however, and then now I mean, I think I just read 38 of the 40 legacy automakers have plans to either fully electrify or have a huge portion of their fleet electric within the next 10 years so it's not just a niche market anymore it's really happening right, for real.

Laura  
Yeah, that's awesome. And you've given me a test ride in the Tesla, and so it is Nick. This is a question, Nick and I'll tell you it is magical. In the car with your hands, like you don't think you're supposed to be off the wheel but for you and coming to like the most perfect stop with the light is pretty awesome, but I'm sure, do you have some stories about giving people test drives. Anything exciting like

Dory Larsen
I don't want to call anybody out, but I do remember one particular

Laura
let's say what should Nick not do when you give him a test right.

Dory Larsen  
Just the torque is so instant and fast, and people don't realize that, which is good because it was so funny, the guy that I was doing the drive with was literally like oh I but some of the drivers make you nervous, and sometimes that happens. But you know I'm pretty, pretty laid back, and he whipped out in front of this car, I really saw my life flash before me so oh my gosh, yeah.

Nic  
So we all have to kind of relearn how to drive and to Laura's point, I mean if he did let me drive and pedal I would literally take it to an airport to board a plane that's going to a place that has an extradition treaty with the United States like that's where I would go, and I like to think of myself as a fairly sane person but they're really cool I love the idea I love the concept, but you have something called the electrify the South, EV toolkit, what is that.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, so the our electrify the South toolkit is a crowdsourced digital resource, so it's actions that local governments have already taken. And it's ways that local governments can take action, so a whole suite of policy and levers that they can take. We've got a piece on increasing infrastructure for your city in your community, how to transition your fleet, for local governments, how to do outreach and education to your community, how to engage with your utilities so it's really like you're looking at electrify your city, as a local government. These are all the different ideas that have come before that have like been effective and work, and you can just click on and read the ordinance and apply it to your local government.

Nic 
Interesting. Is there something that you have to tailor that to each municipality is there are there are the universal trends things that every group wants.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah. So there are definitely things that are more like pressing for a city to get accomplished. We tried to keep it regional because our work is you know, Tennessee, the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida. But, you know, obviously there's other parts of the country like California that are, you know, have been leading in the space. So, but we do try to keep it local because a lot of, you know local decision makers kind of say, well I don't really care what y'all are doing in New York. I want to know what's happening, you know here in Georgia, or in Florida. So one of the big things that any local government really should adopt like yesterday is EV ready policy. And what that does is creates the potential for infrastructure to be installed. When you're ready for it to be installed in parking spaces. So you're oversizing the electric panel going to a project, you are just putting in the tubing so that later you can add the wiring or the charging station. Most charging about 80% of charging happens at home. So people need to have access where they live, to be able to charge, and be able to feel comfortable in buying an electric vehicle, and a lot of people live in apartments and condos, so if we don't build the infrastructure for our buildings, there's a huge intersection with electric transportation of our buildings and our transportation. So if we're not building our buildings to be able to take and accept that electricity, it's a lot more expensive to do on the back end. So it's an issue of cost and making it a lot more feasible to do. And then it's also the access and making sure that every citizen and every town has access and one of our tenants, is it SACE is equity and energy justice. So it really is important that everyone have access to be able to drive an electric vehicle.

Nic  
Do you think there's any are there any specific challenges that municipalities maybe are resistant to some of these measures or ideas.

Dory Larsen 
No, I mean there really are seeing a big uptick in the number of cities that are adopting these policies because it just does make sense. You know we've had calls with developers, and they're recognizing because their tenants are saying, well, I want to be able to charge my electric vehicle Do you guys have that as an amenity. There is some pushback from, we're seeing some preemption bills from the state, not allowing local governments to do a whole host of energy policies that make sense for their citizens. Because of special interest but. But yeah, most people understand the value of that policy and are looking at installing it, I think, also, you know at the beginning, local governments don't necessarily like to be innovators.

Nic 
Yeah,

Dory Larsen 
I think that there's a little bit of risk there. Just, you know, do we really need this, but the answer is yes, and

Laura  
which cities are the role models, which ones are the ones that are stepping out taking that risk.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, there are tons of leaders across the southeast Raleigh has got a great. Yeah, Raleigh transportation electrification plan Orlando is writing their own transportation electrification plan right now their action plan, Miami Dade has made a commitment with their EV ready, work, and also transit buses, which is a huge piece to clean up if we're looking at emissions reductions. So, yeah, there are definite, you know, gold stars across the region.

Laura 
Oh Nic. It's because of you.

Nic
Right, yeah, I'm, I'm a big fan. I'm a big fan.

Laura
They need your support. Right. So do you and your husband Jeff, our role model, community members in my mind, you're always involved in everything in a good way and participating in events and helping, you know, monitor, I think most of us live lives for the not paying attention to what's happening in our own communities and you guys are not only paying attention but participating in local legislature and what kind of things are you involved with now. And how do you balance doing all of that with your two boys who are also very talented and very active.

Dory Larsen  
Thank you. Blushing. Yeah, so my husband was on our city council and appointed Vice Mayor, I through my work at Southern Alliance for Clean Energy got to see what a lot of other communities are doing with their environmental work a lot of towns have sustainability directors or resiliency coordinators in some way. So I really after my husband because of term limits, he's been off the board for about five years now. Started to it through my, like I said through my work with se SACE to really look around and see like all these other cities have sustainability action plan, they have ambitious goals. Why don't we do that so. So our city did agree to create a sustainability committee. And so I serve on that I chaired the Sustainability Committee for our town, and we are writing our sustainability action plan right now, but there's just the more you learn, the more you want to do so, you know I we had looked at solar about 10 years ago, and it wasn't affordable, but then we looked at three years ago and we were like, We can do this. And now we both drive electric cars, and power them with the solar panels on our roof and you know you just you learn more you do better and help others know that you know and like education is in making sure that people are aware of what's, what's possible, is I think key, and our boys God love them they just go along with it. You have no choice.

Nic  
Which is great, I'm glad that they will have them on after actually it will ask them. Same question and see what they say. But we also we also love asking people we interview, what they love to do for fun when they're not saving the planet. So, what are your hobbies.

Dory Larsen 
So I love to play soccer, I've always played soccer, and it helps me to like release so that I don't want to like punch people in the throat, it helps

Nic  
just tackle them on a field and then your

Laura 
No Dory, that's an actual threat.

Dory Larsen 
That's just how I feel. But yeah, it was my brother about 10 years ago was like you should come play with us it's co Ed and I was like whoa, okay, I'm the only woman there, of course, yeah, every now and then we'll get another couple women to play but it's great I love doing that and then I like doing like the, you know, traditional feminine things to like cooking, I love to cook, and actually like just sew, so,

Nic 
so you, you will injure someone on the field and then offer to patch up the clothes. I like that.

Dory Larsen
Exactly. I'm not unkind.

Nic
Are you any good at soccer or is it just kind of fun for you.

Dory Larsen 
It's just fun. Zero skill,a  whole lot of effort.

Laura
What else would you like us to know or that we did not ask you today,

Dory Larsen 
I think, just people's understanding of how affordable electric vehicles have become and how really, it does fit into like so many people's lifestyles. People don't realize that they only usually travel about 40 miles a day in most electric vehicle ranges that are coming out are over 250 miles. So it's practical. It's affordable, I bought my used leaf for $8400. Yeah, and it's just it's a practical solution today it's not something for the future it's here and now. I think that that's always something that I like to make sure that people understand.

Laura 
Yeah, that's a good point and what are like some of the top couple of questions you get from people that you know are stopping them from making the switch.

Dory Larsen 
 I think people just, they think that there's going to be more maintenance or they're complicated, and they're not. They have like, 20 moving parts compared to 2000 and an internal combustion engine so there's just not the things that are going to break, or need repair, so like my car's almost six years old, and I've changed the wipers, and I've changed the 12 volt battery, you know that needs replacing. So I think that that is something that people ask about is, you know, just the practicality of it, and then people also. They don't understand the cost in terms of electricity, it's like a third of the cost of gas, so it's so much cheaper to drive around day in and day out, and then that and then also just how, you know, functional, they are for people's daily lives.

Nic  
And it's funny, like, you know the Tesla, when it came out, I feel like it was basically like someone was like let's make an iPhone car, right that's what they decided to do, and it was kind of brilliant because you know, people love iPhones, they love technology. And I think every, you know, like the leaf had been around for a while and it didn't quite do that. So Tesla is the trendy pick, you know now, but is there another car maybe that is coming up that's gonna challenge really challenge Tesla because Tesla was way ahead of everybody else who's actually catching up catching up to them.

Dory Larsen 
I think that that's a great question because there's so many that are like, have projected that they're going to be building you know 30 models by right but Tesla's got like the ground proof of like we've done it. But like the Volkswagen ID4 is out the Ford Mach E is out, and it's a really sweet look and ride. It's like a 300 mile range. So, and the trucks are coming and I think that that's really exciting, especially like in the southeast so many people like trucks. So, in their, you know, their solution for all sorts of things that people don't even realize like in Texas when they had the power outage and in February with the winter storms, people were using their hybrid F -150s the batteries on those to run their phones and to keep space heaters going so you can use the battery in a car, I mean it's a battery.

Nic 
Yeah.

Dory Larsen 
And you can put an inverter on it, and power appliances when there's an emergency so

Laura 
 Just a giant generator.

Dory Larsen  
Yeah, exactly. So there's just these applications that are really exciting to think about. It's not just like a car that moves things.

Nic 
Well I think the scary thing for people too is like you know you mentioned infrastructure earlier, right, and so, so I think people have always been a little worried like okay well I know where all the gas stations are in my hometown. I have no idea where the charging stations are or if there are any on my route. So, how have companies combated that,

Dory Larsen 
that's a great question. And you're right, people don't see the big signs so they don't know that the infrastructure is there. There's a ton of infrastructure in the ground, and there's a ton more that needs to come online to be able to electrify all of our vehicles and go 100% Electric, the Biden ministration just made a big announcement to fund 500,000 charge ports across the country, but there's an app called Plugshare and you literally just type in the address, and it'll show you all of the charging stations that are around you. Back in the day people, we actually put their home charging stations on if people were stuck in needed needed a charge. So you'll still see those on the map, but yeah, Google has actually you can find charging stations on a Google App, and Google Maps. And yeah, there's, you know, the Tesla has the charging stations like already in the car you just punch in an address and it takes care of it. So, but like GM has made a big commitment to streamlining all of the different charging companies that do charging into one system so that it makes it easier for their drivers to just pull up and have that interconnection.

Nic 
Awesome. That's really cool. Okay, so we can't let you leave without asking what your favorite car to drive is.

Dory Larsen 
I mean, I don't want to be like super Tesla fan girl, but the model three really is a lot of fun to drive, but my husband who drives a Chevy Bolt, insist that he loves his Bolt better, so

Laura 
they're a divided house,

Dory Larsen 
but they're all like they all have that instant torque and like fun like get up and go no matter what, electric car you're in, just, you know, I know my leaf is not quite as cool looking as,

Laura  
right, right, which is hilarious because like Pruis you know Prius was like, here we come. We're front runners and then every most like this thing is so weak and that Tesla came out with like didn't have to be like that.

Dory Larsen  
Yeah, exactly. And there's still some people have that misconception they think that they think a Prius when they think electric cars don't understand that it's like complete different technology.

Laura 
Yeah, I'm still ready for self full self driving. I'd  like to see that so

Dory Larsen 
I think it would be better than some of the traffic on our roads in Florida, I mean just saying

Nic 
about your life with flash with not only flash before your eyes yeah we wouldn't do it nearly as much. Right,

Dory Larsen  
right, and you know I'm like, my 15 year old because Learner's Permit right sometimes I wish that Yeah, exactly. Yeah,

Nic 
I know, but, but I think we all have to learn a little bit right because like you said that instant torque is so different than what you expect. I mean gosh I used to drive a Honda Civic, I remember we were going up to the mountains and my wife is like, why aren't you driving faster I'm like my foots on the floor. Okay, this can't go fast. This is as good as we can do, so it's such a neat thing to see that change.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, now we say we jokingly say that like going from an electric or regular car to an electric is like going from a flip phone to like the newest iPhone. Yeah, is that technology leap. Yeah.

Nic  
Cool. I actually have one more question for you to like so SACE does more than electric vehicles. So what else do they do, you mentioned it a little bit but I can go into like a little bit further detail there.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, so we advocate for responsible and equitable energy choices throughout the southeast, so we do similar to what's the work that we do with occupy the South, research, and do our own independent research we do advocacy and filings and all of the Commission's and then also outreach and education. So, we like our buckets of work, our energy efficiency, energy efficiency and the SE is abysmal. The utility companies do not want to pay for it because they do not make money from it. So, you know, that's part of what we do is try to educate people on the importance of energy efficiency because you know obviously the cheapest energy is the energy you don't use, and you don't need to build, you know, new plants to, if we can decrease the need for and manage the load and kind of keep it flat, because, you know, people come home and they turn everything on and they throw laundry in the room, so that's, yeah. So waste and electric vehicles is a really cool component of that too because you can keep the load up but charge if you charge at night kind of flattens that curve. So it brings rates down for everybody because you're using energy at those off peak times. So we do energy efficiency we also do a lot of work on renewable energy. We, there were like solar wars on the Florida 2017 ballot, or maybe 2016, where like, there were two bills, competing bills, and one of them was pro solar and one of them was, like, dressed up to look solar but it was actually really not it was, it would have been very damaging and because of social media, we were able to play a really big like campaign game and educate people and the good bill passed, and the bad bill didn't, so. Yeah, so we do like that kind of work as well like campaigns like that amendment nine in Florida was the ban on offshore drilling. So we played a big space in that, and making sure that voters understood why we need a ban in state waters in addition to the federal ban. So energy efficiency solar and renewable climate action and a lot of, like, my colleague Susan Glickman is our Florida director. She does a lot of work with the getting the regional agencies to work together on a regional climate compact. So South Florida has a regional climate compact where they're all like using best practices for sustainability, and resiliency and interchanging ideas so that it's helping them and because they're able to do like studies that show the economic impact of what sea level rise is going to do to South Florida. So like all like, anything that has to do with climate like that, in terms of emissions reductions like that's kind of where we're at, we used to like historically we were really involved in coal retirements stuff like that but yeah, it's still very much advocating for clean energy standards at the federal level. So,

Nic 
gotcha that's really awesome to hear.

Dory Larsen
Yeah, the electric transportation work is just like that little side piece, that little thing. It has like those really cool intersections with everything else like it is, efficiency buildings

Nic
Right right right. . Yeah, it's a really neat part like the way we, it's like, you know, sometimes things come along and it just totally changes the way we do everything right, like the iPhone is a perfect example. In oh seven, I thought that came out way before that. But no, oh seven was the first one, and it wasn't even that good, it was just like, such a novel concept and now, like you know, it's a computer

Dory Larsen  
right now, and like your Tesla is a computer on wheels right yeah
I mean that's, and you can just interface with your phone with it I mean, it's so cool how it all just works together like that, it just, it would not have happened except the Florida, California had stronger clean air standards. Yeah, you know a lot of the cars a lot of manufacturers were just making small numbers of compliance cars to meet the California standards and elections matter to like GM was, you know, was suing the state of California, until November until after the election, yes, but GM was not all in on EV, like this all is like coming like so fast. Wow, because they Yeah like, when, when Trump got in he lowered the clean air standards. He wanted to roll back, Obama standards and GM and some other OEMs, California basically was suing the federal government to be able to, to maintain their standards that they've had since the 70s. So the OEMs were jumping in on the side of the federal government suing the state of California. And then after the election, GM and some of the other manufacturers were like well, like in January we're like, by the way we're going, electric, thank God for California and they're like progressive policies because other, you know like it would not, it matters.

Nic 
Yeah, sure. I mean, gosh, I could think about like, I have a, an O six Honda Accord so with 300,000 miles on it like I, I drove that drove the thing to the ground, it's time for a new car, and it's still funny, electric, I really want it to be like, well, so so the model three for me it will be a little too expensive, but that's the one I want, right, it's the one I want and it's not quite there yet, like cost wise it needs to be like $10,000 cheaper and. But the other car manufacturers right. Looking at the same sedan style car, they're all like, they're like two years behind it drives me crazy because I need a new car now. And I want them to catch up, but like, you know, Mazda has tech from like 2013 in their cars, and everybody's asking Oh Tesla's got tech I want the tech and they're like well yeah, it's coming in two years you know whatever it is, it's it's just behind, and it's driving me bonkers, right. So I just want, I want a Tesla that's $10,000 cheaper, that's what I want

Dory Larsen 
right now that's where we were last year break for COVID like my husband had a gajillion year old Prius and it was. We were like, We need a new car, we're not spending any more on repairs, and I really wanted a model three, but, you know, you can't them not afford it, we just couldn't. And so, releasing his bolt for like $290 a month, that is so cheap, like that is pretty cheap. Yeah, and like and then the gas and the oil changes and all that that goes on top of it, so I mean a bolts 258 mile range, you know,

Nic  
well so okay so my dad's a Ford guy. That's the only problem I have with the Bolt like if I took that home I might not come back.

Dory Larsen
Have you looked at the Mach E?

Nic
I have. it does look super cool. Yeah, like, I'm gonna keep like just dreaming, is that I don't know is that cheaper intestinalis.

Dory Larsen
Well, they still have the tax credit.

Nic
Oh that's right, I forgot about that. Alright, I'm telling my wife tonight, we're getting a Mustang,

Dory Larsen 
So, all of the manufacturers still have that $7500 federal tax credit, except for GM and Tesla.

Nic 
Okay, I did not know that. I mean I've just kind of totally forgot about it.

Dory Larsen  
And some states have like a state credit as well I don't think North Carolina does but,

Nic  
I mean there's there actually are quite a few. I mean, you talk about like the US being ahead on electric infrastructure. I think it's because we have that resource triangle. There's Tesla's everywhere here, everywhere. Yeah so, I don't know. Maybe they're like well we don't need to get credits because everybody's already got one.

Dory Larsen 
So, no, it's because then the SE it's a very libertarian like being, we just don't see those kind of tax credit, things in the South. Yeah, and like we can't afford to see our like role in the world, as technology innovators, and we are like we have been just kind of like, Oh no, we're just gonna, like, you know, lalala. And we can't do that because that's, you know like, China's said they're not going to buy petrol cars. Europe has said they're not going to buy petrol cars, so if we don't go, I mean, and that's the bottom line is like if our American automakers don't, if they want to have a market to sell to you, then they need to start making more electric cars because that's what we're going to be buying.

Nic 
Yeah, for sure. Oh that's absolutely the trend.

Dory Larsen 
I think I mandate, but then also when people see the technology and they, in they drive it and they're like, oh, and it really is like who wants a Betty White flip phone when you can have. Yeah, but true and like and the part that will I mean I sound like, you know I'm like stumping for Biden, but like, but, but, but we need jobs and we need like, well paying jobs and we need, like, to maintain that technology edge. It's like all of those things will come with this, you know what I mean it's not like giving something up to just be pro environment, it's not just about like cleaning the air but the tremendous benefits of like public health and environmental health, that come out of it, that don't necessarily have to be the end game like for me they're the end game like that's our North stars is reducing carbon, and, yeah, but most people just want to cool ride, and you can have both with. And while you're building the economy and creating jobs so like it's, you know, I mean it's kind of one of those.

Laura  
Yeah, I get it, it's kind of like the veganism thing, people will argue to death like veganism, doesn't mean environmentalism, but it does. Yeah. You can have both. You could just do it because you want to or you can do it because it's also good for the environment and your body. And maybe you don't do it every day start off with one electric vehicle and your other cars or regular vehicle, you don't have to like go cold turkey.

Dory Larsen 
Right, that's what we did and we found out that we can still take family trips and go long distances, because there's charging infrastructure to do it so

Nic 
yeah, which is really cool, and it's only gonna get better from here. It's not going to get worse. That's the cool part. And I think it just needed that, that innovation at the start, because, well, I mean, I guess with Tesla, it just needed something you just spark and then everybody's like, Okay, this is where we're going.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah, but I remember even like in 2017, 2018 where they were still on the red, you know their earnings reports and people go, Tesla's going to fold and they were making so much money on the shorts and betting against it, you know,

Nic 
It's crazy. Everyone wanted Tesla to fail.

Dory Larsen 
And now they've turned the corner and now that all these other manufacturers are making these billion dollar like $30 billion investments, like it's gonna happen

Nic 
is weird, Think about because I don't know if there's another equivalent of a company that everybody wanted to fail.

Dory Larsen 
Right. You think about like when we went from horse and buggy to cars, there wasn't like a horse lobby that was, like, really, really like betting against the automobile industry, but we do have, you know, a huge albatross around our neck with like the oil industry is like, I mean, no joke, they are for real still trying to put up every barrier and, you know, that they can to stop this from happening. And I don't like, I'm not not aware of that every day. Yeah.

Laura 
Well awesome, this was fun to do with you. Where, where can we find more about you, about someone wants to get in touch with you, how do they get in touch with you.

Dory Larsen 
Yeah. So, our website is electrifythesouth.org is the SACE parent company if you want to get more involved in all sorts of clean energy ideas is cleanenergy.org and my email is Dory@cleanenergy.org happy to entertain your emails.

Nic
Awesome.

Laura
Thanks Dory.

Dory Larsen
My pleasure, thanks for having me.

[Outro]

Nic 
That's our show. Thank you Dory so much for coming on and talking to us about electric vehicles, it's always a really fun topic, and I'm so glad we got to cover it today, in a lot of detail is really fun. So, as always, be sure to subscribe, rate and review, please be sure to check us out each and every Friday. And don't forget to subscribe, rate and review, see you everybody.

Laura 
Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai