'Kiss Your Gas Goodbye' Friday at First Unitarian

A local church may be the last place you'd expect to learn more about how to save money on gas or buy an electric vehicle, but that's Friday night's entertainment at First Unitarian Church.

Long known for its social activism, the church's environmental ministry will host a new documentary film-screening and answer questions about fuel economy during "Kiss Your Gas Goodbye," aimed at helping anyone interested in moving beyond the current nail-biting Utahns experience at the gas pump.

Co-sponsored by the church, along with Utah Interfaith Power & Light and Post Carbon Salt Lake, organizers plan to "provide some eye-opening answers to these questions" and "discuss and describe our individual and collective transportation future."

The event begins Friday at 6:30 p.m. at the church, 569 S. 1300 East, with a display of electric vehicles. The documentary screening begins at 7.

Michael Mielke, who oversees Post Carbon Salt Lake, said the technology and concepts to be presented at the event are "revolutionary" because "we have the only electric vehicle in the West charged by solar power. ... If you actually have a car that can run on the interstate that is a normal kind of vehicle not using coal or gas and has absolutely no emissions, that's one of the only things that's going to get our air clean."

Mielke, a longtime environmental activist, will be at the event to discuss not only new ways of looking at individual and group transportation, but to present about 45 minutes of a new two-hour documentary film by Richard Heinberg.

He said those who believe the current fuel crisis can be solved by drilling for more oil fail to acknowledge three factors: that the oil supply is ultimately a limited one; that gas prices will ultimately drive individual consumers to find new technology; and that significant carbon reduction in the atmosphere is the only workable solution to global warming.

"We're toast unless we reduce fossil fuel," he said. In addition to soaring gas prices, "what other reason do you need" to find an alternative.

Mielke said he will lead discussions about solar and wind power for home energy consumption and other alternatives, answering questions about costs and technology.

Rather than waiting for government to figure out solutions, consumers must be the driving force, he said. "The heart of the matter is this: the answers to the crazy problems we face are out there, and people don't know them. The data has not been put out there. From my point of view, people get their information from sources who largely would rather keep their entrenched interests going."