There’s an electric car revolution underway in sleepy Browntown, Wisconsin, population 252.

More than six Sebring-Vanguard CitiCars, many zipping down the country roads in southwestern Wisconsin, are registered to owners in this small town – most to Phil Welty and one to myself.  They come in red, yellow and several other colors and look like a wedge of cheese, but they’re all completely powered by electric motors.  It’s estimated that as few as 600 CitiCars are still on the road in the U.S. with less than 3,000 manufactured by Sebring-Vanguard between 1974 and 1976 during the last energy crisis.

“When I first saw the CitiCars back in the 1970s, it was the only all-electric car on the market,” recalls Phil Welty,  “The same problem exists today as in the 1970s, like high fuel prices and our marriage to foreign oil.  I’ve always wanted to bring one back from the junkyard and restore it to fully operable condition.”  Not content with just one, he has two CitiCars on the road, using his other cars for parts.

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Like Welty, Ben Nelson is serious about making the changes, not waiting for someone else to come along to save the day.  A year ago, Nelson took a 1996 two-door hatchback Geo Metro and replaced the 1.0 liter three-cylinder gasoline engine with a forklift motor and replaced the gas tank with a bank of batteries.  “The car still has its driver and passenger airbags, daytime running lights, and all the other things you would expect in a regular car,” shares Nelson.  “The difference is that it runs on renewable energy for a cost of about 2 cents a mile.”

I caught up with Nelson at the Midwest Renewable Energy Association’s Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair where he had his all-electric Geo Metro on display.  He was all wound up having just returned from the 2009 International Gathering of CitiCars held in Columbia, Maryland, just two miles from the home of the creator of the vehicles, Bob Beaumont.  The gathering was organized by one of the members of the C-Car Yahoo Group.

“The CitiCars are simple, practical, quiet,” sums up Nelson.  “They are easy to fix, and cheap to maintain.  That, and they are 100% street legal. Your other choices are a $100,000 Tesla, or a conversion, which usually costs about $10,000, plus all the work and knowledge.”  Welty echoes these sentiments, with a caveat regarding the troublesome CitiCar brakes (and lack of a parking brake).

“Three years ago, I couldn’t have possibly imagined myself building an electric car,” admits Nelson.  “I’m just trying to make do with what I have to make the world a little better. I have come to find that few things in life work they way I wished they do.  If they often don’t “fit in the box,” the only thing to do is change the box.”  One time Nelson even got pulled over for a speeding ticket while out for a test drive, material for one of his electric car forum posts.

Welty also shares the innovative, can-do spirit.  “I do what I do with the CitiCars not to make money, but to express the opportunities that rest with renewable energy and electric powered transportation.”

“If there’s somebody else out there that has more of them in one town, I’d sure like to hear from them,” smiles Welty, reflecting on the per capita ownership of CitiCars in Browntown.  He’s quick to admit that if he sells one or two of his restored CitiCars (which he plans to do), then Browntown will lose its claim to fame.

But I won’t be parting with my CitiCar, that much is for sure.

Photography: John Ivanko/www.innnserendipity.com

HelpSweden.org has drafted a petition to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. It urges greater action on the Millennium Development Goals when Sweden holds the European Union presidency in the second half of 2009. The message also holds a reminder of the first world’s forgotten debt to the rest of the world for resources and labor.

Think Africa’s poor?

Not in terms of natural resources. Most diamonds and gold in the world come from Africa. With all the conflict that’s erupted over mining the abundant precious materials in the Congo, there’s a saying, “We’d be so much better off if we weren’t so rich.”

Much of the African continent is also blessed a climate far more lush than, say, Sweden. Yet with a fraction of the natural resources and more snow than you could shake a kräftskivor at, Sweden’s economy is among the top twenty largest in the world, dwarfing any African nation.

So what gives?

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Due to lack of information and access to markets, the poor farmer, like many others in his village, is left with little choice but to part with his crop.

Most likely, he will not be able to afford healthcare, or send his children to school, and all his sweat will go to fattening the purse of a huge conglomerate in the global north. The conglomerate will process the cotton (or whatever product it is) into a good that the poor farmer can only dream of purchasing.

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“The new agreement marks a turning point in US-Venezuela relations,” said Juan Johnston of the North American Monitor of Bribery in Latin America (NAMBLA). “It also underscores the magnitude of recent growth in demand for ethically produced goods.”

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