A book titled “Historic Photos of Cincinnati” by Linda Bailey has a crisp photo that artfully captures how we were smarter than a fifth-grader at the turn of the 20th century.

It’s a 1912 picture of a woman plugging in a cord to recharge her car in her garage! 

That was Act 1 of our national effort to use electricity as our primary transportation “fuel.” Yet electricity was phased out as the oil companies roared ahead by drilling land, sand and water for black gold.

Act II took place in the 1990s with California’s Zero Emission Vehicle Mandate. “But only a small number of these electric cars were ever offered for sale,” reports Plug In America on its website. “The auto and oil industries spent millions lobbying in Sacramento, sued in federal court and successfully eviscerated the mandate, eliminating any real choice for consumers.” The brilliant documentary “Who Killed the Electric Car?” chronicles in exquisite detail the colorful cast of characters that closed the curtains on Act II. 

But last month, the curtain rose on Act III for the electric vehicle.

Besides the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt making splashy debuts four days apart in December, Plug In America now lists dozens of EVs on its website’s Plug-In Vehicle Tracker.

In addition, the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative kicked off an ambitious initiative Dec. 13 to coordinate a massive booting up of thousands of charging stations; upgrading existing stations; and creating a network of “switching stations,” where electric vehicle owners can stop and switch out their depleted batteries. (EVChargerNews.com identifies more than 100 charging locations in Southern California with a concentration curling from West Hollywood to Santa Monica to the Los Angeles International Airport.)

Incubated at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, this 35-member collaborative includes five L.A.-area members: Clean Fuel Connection Inc., the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Southern California Edison and Toyota. If this impressive collaborative gets it right, it could become a model for other states to get charged up.

Long way to go

Yet, while momentum is building for electricity to become the ironic “breakout” fuel for cars, there are multiple mountain ranges to maneuver around before we will ever be truly free from oil.

Among the questions: Will the EV industry be able to overcome the public’s prevailing fear of distance limitations? And will the masses be patient enough to adapt to the two- to eight-hour recharging times during the day when they’re away from their residential charging stations at night?

The respectable Kelley Blue Book forecasts that only 7 percent of car shoppers are likely to consider an electric vehicle this year. Southern California Edison is predicting only about 100,000 EVs on SoCal freeways by 2015.

Plus, EV incentives won’t last forever. The $5,000 California rebate for electric vehicles only has about $8 million available, enough for about 1,600 cars. Considering the drastic cuts in the state budget, will that fund be replenished? And will the maximum $7,500 federal tax credit be continued indefinitely? If one or both of these is suspended, it could douse the already weak demand.

Still, to our credit, California is getting Act III together this time. But how many other early adopter states are this far along? Sure, there are bubbling EV clusters and regions around the nation, but is it enough to create a transcendental era for transportation?

There are two possible trump cards that can help accelerate a historic transformation. Approximately 30 percent of our SoCal CO2 emissions are spewed by cars and trucks. Pure EVs are emission free. If EVs can be expertly marketed as an instant contributor to bettering a community’s health index and quality of life, we have this golden window of geological time to actually begin decreasing a critical component to climate warming, by converting one vehicle at a time.  

As one leading example – Southern California Edison with the nation’s largest private fleet of EVs numbering 287 – calculated it alone has reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 10,000 tons and gasoline consumption by 963,000 gallons, and saved the utility $2.2 million in fuel and oil changes.

Also, with gas prices expected to hit $4 to $4.50 per gallon by summer and with an equivalent charge costing EV owners only about 70 cents a gallon, that single fact could create a beeline to the EV showroom.  

Sadly, we’ve already missed two opportunities to use the most efficient transportation fuel ever created: once in 1912 when we had electric cars already up and charging in garages, and then again in the 1990s.

Now, 99 years later – while going completely back to the future – can we generate a will and a national strategic vision comprehensive enough to not only rehab our “addiction” to oil, but also to start lightening global warming’s grip on the planet?

John T. Boal writes about all aspects of the environment at EnvironmentTonight.blogspot.com. He is a co-author of “Chicken Soup for the Volunteer’s Soul” and author of “Be a Global Force of One!” He lives in Burbank.