Lillian Hunyar, senior, said she has talked with her parents about owning an electric car since she was young and now owns her very own.
“Part of it was that I genuinely did not want to have to pay for gas,” Hunyar said. “I also didn’t want to be putting more gas into the system, using more fossil fuels when I was lucky enough to have an electric car.”
Hunyar said she’s passionate about the environment and took AP Environmental Science and Geoscience to educate herself on ways to be better at sustainability.
“If people are talking about their electric cars or talking about solar panels or why being a vegetarian is dumb, I just try to drop the little things that I know,” Hunyar said.
Hunyar said that she has noticed that electric cars are on the rise because fossil fuel resources are running low, so people are looking for different options.
Kevin Koch, AP environmental science teacher, said the consumption of fossil fuels releases greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide. This can cause photochemical smog which can lead to tropospheric ozone, a damaging air pollutant located in the lowest layer of the atmosphere.
Electric vehicles (EVs) do not release these emissions during operation, which separates them from traditional gasoline vehicles, Koch said.
“The increase in fuel economy as well as the added auto stop system on cars helps to reduce the emissions from internal combustion engines. Hybrid cars also increase fuel efficiency and reduce emissions,” Koch said.
Koch said MHS and society as a whole could promote the use of electric vehicles in order to reduce fossil fuel use.
A way to encourage students and staff to drive electric vehicles more often is to have the infrastructures (like charging stations) in place to support EVs, Koch said.
“Range anxiety is often a fear that people have when it comes to electric vehicles. The infrastructure to charge EV’s throughout the country is still a little sparse and often takes a long time to fully charge the battery,” Koch said. “Marquette can potentially install charging stations on campus, however, this can be an expensive process.”
Having been educated on the environmental benefits of electric vehicles, Daniela Montilla, junior, would be willing to drive an electric car to school if she got the chance.
“I would want to drive an electric car because they’re good for the environment, but they’re just too expensive for me right now,” Montilla said.
Montilla said that if MHS were to implement charging stations eventually, she could see a lot more students driving EV’s to school.
Some public high schools in the nation have even begun incorporating electric vehicles in their driver’s education programs, according to an article published by Yale Climate Connections in 2023. Others have added electric buses.
Junior Principal Kyle Devine is in charge of transportation at MHS and said there has been no plans from the district about adding charging stations or EV’s to drivers education.
“We moved away from actual vehicles years ago and now use simulators,” Devine said. “I think the cost of the vehicles and the charging station would keep the district from utilizing electric vehicles if they ever moved back to drivers ed on real streets.”
