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President Ken called us to order, then calling on Lois Josefson Russell to provide our invocation. Zack Stach told us that on the last Tuesday and Thursday of each month, starting October 27th, we will be helping out at United Way. A thank you from Habitat for Humanity was received for our support of the 2022 Habitat500; a group of 117 riders and 45 volunteers raised over $180,000 this year; since Habitat Minnesota began coordinating the Ride in 2002, it has raised over $5.8 million. We then headed into brags and fines, with Lisa McFarland and Zack Stach paying for missing some meetings and Zack for having to leave the day's meeting early. Tim Hunt paid to tell us he needed a fine card while Mary Pettit contributed for missing last week and to express her excitement about Fergus Falls School of Dance classes having begun. Lois told us she enjoyed reading The Daily Journal's magazine and also seeing Mary's ad in it with her great smile and the words Mary uses to describe herself: "personal, positive and professional." Keith Olson related the sad story of having made all the arrangements for the 41st almost-annual goose hunting trip to Canada (having only missed due to the pandemic), only to find out the U.S. has banned transporting any geese harvested back into the states. Luke Leach was with us from Otter Tail Power Company, and he talked about electric vehicles. While the European Union has standardized plug-ins, we have four types in the United States; those installed in a home garage are usually what are called the J1772. North American manufacturers use what is either called a CCS Type 1 or Type 2, while Tesla has its own style, offering an adapter to be able to use the other types. Electric car batteries are designed to last the typical life of a vehicle, with current data showing around a 10% battery degradation at 200,000 miles. Batteries that do reach end of life are still valuable for the metals they contain, and current recycling technology allows for greater than 92% recovery of battery material, with newer processes resulting in greater than a 95% recovery. As to vehicle fires (there were 173,000 of them in the U.S. alone in 2020), electric vehicles are safer and less likely to catch fire. Recent data indicates the fire rates for electric vehicles are 11 times lower than the U.S. average, resulting in approximately five incidents for every billion miles traveled. The U.S. average results in 53 vehicle fires for every billion miles traveled. It was also noted that an electric vehicle has a lot fewer moving parts than one with an internal combustion engine. Otter Tail Power Company will ultimately have 11 charging station sites in Minnesota, with the end result that 100% of its Minnesota customers will be within 45 miles of a charging site. The Fergus Falls install will be powered with 280 kw. Right now, there are chargers at Service, the library and the brewery. Luke also talked about the tax credits that are available now for electric vehicle purchasers. For more information on all of this, you can go to otpco.com/EVs. |
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