This is the second post in a series about gasoline prices and our dependence on fossil fuels. Read the first post here.

It’s an election year and you know what that means. The media and those running for office all want to talk about gas prices. Every time I hear somebody kicking up a storm about gas prices, I’m reminded of this commercial from Nissan which asks: What if everything didn’t run on gas? So many people are so focused on the price of gas that we lose sight of the solutions at hand. Electric vehicles, or EVs as they’re commonly known, don’t require expensive stops at the pump.

The world’s largest auto companies, including Ford, General Motors, Honda and Nissan, are already making electric vehicles. And many more will be offering all-electric cars in the next few years. Last year, BMW announced plans for its first all-electric car and hopes to have it on the market by 2013. Mitsubishi recently unveiled plans for an electric car as climate change prompted the company to turn to an electric vehicle. Even Ferrari – yes, the Ferrari – is going to launch a hybrid car later this year.

Not enough charging stations? They’re popping up everywhere. Cities all over the country are installing them left and right. Some companies are even getting in on the act. New Belgium Brewing Co. in Fort Collins, Colorado is even letting customers use its new charging stations for free.

The results are in: EVs are here to stay. Unfortunately, so are high gas prices. I’ll be the first one to admit that as much as I’d love to, I just can’t afford a new electric car, but there is good news. Thanks to aggressive new clean car standards, cars across the board will increasingly do more with less fuel. So next time you hear somebody complaining about high gas prices, remind them that there is an alternative – that there can be a world where not everything runs on gas.

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