Contrary to a recent letter to the editor (“Clean car rules will harm Mainers,” Nov. 16), Maine’s proposed clean car rules are a step in the right direction.
Many readers my age remember well the late 1990s and all the talk about two new and popular technologies: cellphones and the internet. Specifically, we remember how we could have filled Sebago Lake with the stories from our older compatriots about how these useless technologies were doomed to fail. Currently we can find those same kinds of folks using Wi-Fi connected smartphones to write about how the greatest advancement in transportation since gasoline is destined for the same fate.
I feel the people of the great state of Maine can take a cue from the past and give a nod to the future by acknowledging when a modern technology is rising, and grab hold. The timely embracing of modern disruptive technology was what put Lewiston, Biddeford, and all of our mill towns on the map in the 1800s. It was the denial of modern tech and changing times that oversaw their decline into obscurity.
Modern EVs get hundreds of miles of range to get you from here to there in comfort. They are the safest, most reliable, most pleasurable and the best bang for your buck. Nobody in their right mind expects them to replace every work truck and skidder in the state, but for the majority of hard-working people, an EV is the right choice for their daily driver, year-round.
Travis Ritchie
Mechanic Falls
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