Hey all, I hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>*It didn’t take much for Eric Swenson to start a chain reaction that in less than two years would prompt the world’s most influential entertainment company to make a powerful clean energy commitment.*
>*Swenson was at Disneyland with his wife, celebrating her birthday. He was startled when he realized that the classic 1955 Autopia ride was as “loud and foul” as ever, with oil-fueled cars spewing lung-damaging, planet-warming gases.*
>*“When I saw Autopia was still like 1,000 lawnmowers running at the same time, I took pictures and sent a note to Paul,” he said.*
>*That would be longtime electric vehicle advocate Paul Scott. Startled by Swenson’s message, Scott and fellow advocate Zan Dubin filed complaints about Autopia’s air pollution with California regulators, raising questions about possible health dangers to guests waiting in line, and to Disney employees working the attraction, breathing in those fumes for hours on end.*
>*Dubin and Scott also reached out to an L.A. Times climate reporter (me), urging me to write about the opportunity for Disney to convert Autopia to electric cars. I started pressing the company for answers on why it hadn’t done so yet — especially in an area of the park known as Tomorrowland, intended by Walt Disney to showcase technologies that would create a better future.*
>*Lo and behold, Disney quickly promised to ditch gas engines at Autopia. A win for the climate and for our bodies.*
>*Then last week, under continued pressure from a growing coalition of electric car proponents, Disney went further, pledging that Autopia’s new vehicles would be fully electric, not hybrids. The company also promised to stop operating the combustion vehicles by fall 2026 — a much firmer commitment than its initial timeline of “in the next few years.”*
>*On Sunday, Swenson was among two dozen climate advocates who gathered outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to cheer the company’s action — and celebrate their own achievement. Dubin led the group in a collective call of “thank you, Disney.”*
Again, I hope you’ll read the whole piece and let me know what you think. If you’re interested, you can sign up for my twice-weekly Boiling Point columns and news roundups at [latimes.com/boilingpoint](http://latimes.com/boilingpoint)
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Hey all, I hope you’ll read my latest L.A. Times column and let me know what you think! Here’s how it starts:
>*It didn’t take much for Eric Swenson to start a chain reaction that in less than two years would prompt the world’s most influential entertainment company to make a powerful clean energy commitment.*
>*Swenson was at Disneyland with his wife, celebrating her birthday. He was startled when he realized that the classic 1955 Autopia ride was as “loud and foul” as ever, with oil-fueled cars spewing lung-damaging, planet-warming gases.*
>*“When I saw Autopia was still like 1,000 lawnmowers running at the same time, I took pictures and sent a note to Paul,” he said.*
>*That would be longtime electric vehicle advocate Paul Scott. Startled by Swenson’s message, Scott and fellow advocate Zan Dubin filed complaints about Autopia’s air pollution with California regulators, raising questions about possible health dangers to guests waiting in line, and to Disney employees working the attraction, breathing in those fumes for hours on end.*
>*Dubin and Scott also reached out to an L.A. Times climate reporter (me), urging me to write about the opportunity for Disney to convert Autopia to electric cars. I started pressing the company for answers on why it hadn’t done so yet — especially in an area of the park known as Tomorrowland, intended by Walt Disney to showcase technologies that would create a better future.*
>*Lo and behold, Disney quickly promised to ditch gas engines at Autopia. A win for the climate and for our bodies.*
>*Then last week, under continued pressure from a growing coalition of electric car proponents, Disney went further, pledging that Autopia’s new vehicles would be fully electric, not hybrids. The company also promised to stop operating the combustion vehicles by fall 2026 — a much firmer commitment than its initial timeline of “in the next few years.”*
>*On Sunday, Swenson was among two dozen climate advocates who gathered outside Walt Disney Studios in Burbank to cheer the company’s action — and celebrate their own achievement. Dubin led the group in a collective call of “thank you, Disney.”*
Again, I hope you’ll read the whole piece and let me know what you think. If you’re interested, you can sign up for my twice-weekly Boiling Point columns and news roundups at [latimes.com/boilingpoint](http://latimes.com/boilingpoint)