On a warm and sunny late August afternoon, the sound of engines rumble as the Hastings Saturday Night Cruise-in moves under way. A few times each summer dozens of classic cars and their enthusiastic owners gather in Hastings around the Highway 61 bridge to show off their pride and joy. Food trucks and festivities abound.
One noticeable difference for this particular cruise-in was the presence of ten shiny new electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids. This marks the first time ever that the Saturday Night Cruise-in included a showcase of electric vehicles. Conservation Minnesota partnered with Hastings Energy Action Team, Hastings Downtown Business Association, MN Electric Vehicle Owners, and Xcel Energy to get a whole host of some of the coolest EVs available in Minnesota. It was a vivid display of the old and the new that provided an opportunity for car lovers of all kinds to learn about this new age of vehicles.
Despite this great showing of EV owners in Hastings, we are still limited in Minnesota on the makes and models of electric vehicles that we can buy. That’s why we are very excited here at Conservation Minnesota to fully support the Clean Cars Minnesota initiative. On September 25th (2019), Governor Tim Walz announced that he is directing the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to begin the rule making process for adopting clean car standards in our state. This will help to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect our air for all Minnesotans.