Posted: Aug 2, 2010 3:54 PM
Updated: Aug 2, 2010 6:47 PM
TUCSON - The oil spill in the Gulf is prompting some Tucsonans to make changes. They are looking for ways to use less fuel.
Matt Zoll enjoys his dark green 1998 convertible BMW for short trips around town.
Recently, he decided the car isn't green enough.
"After the BP oil spill, I just decided it's time to cut as much back on oil as possible," he says.
"You know there was just more grim news and more severe numbers coming in all the time with the estimates as to how much oil was getting out into the gulf."
Zoll is ditching the Beemer and has a reservation for the all-electric Nissan Leaf.
The Leaf has zero emmissions. It is a five passenger vehicle with a range of about 100 miles per charge.
Zoll is not the only one looking for change.
"People would walk in and I would be answering an email," says Colleen Crowninshield, Clean Cities Program Manager with the Pima Association of Governments. "I would have a cell phone in this ear and this phone in this ear and I would just be trying to respond to people. "
She is trying to keep up with a 50% to 75% increase in emails and phone calls. The increase started a week after the spill.
"With people saying we're fed up, we want to change. We need to change. We want to find alternatives. We need to find alternatives," she says.
People like Zoll say the range of the Leaf is ideal for those inner-city trips.
Crowninshield tells News 4, she's also getting many calls from businesses wanting to change their entire fleets as well.
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