Atlanta’s recent heat wave has helped to produce a string of Smog Alert days this summer -- 20 by the end of July -- sharpening the focus on the city’s air quality. But there is one transportation system that’s actually avoided more than 2.2 million pounds of emissions in Georgia.

Georgia Power’s electric vehicle (EV) program reached a milestone recently as they surpassed five million miles driven. These EV miles prevented the release of more than 13,000 pounds of nitrous oxide, 22,000 pounds of volatile organic compounds, 186,000 pounds of carbon monoxide and two million pounds of carbon dioxide.

Electric transportation is able to make significant reductions in Georgia’s air pollution. “An electric vehicle has no exhaust emissions to pollute the air because there is no combustion of fuel, thus no pollutants are emitted,” explained Don Still, manager of Georgia Power’s electric transportation program. “On the other hand, internal combustion releases hydrocarbons during fueling, vapors from the gas tank, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas), particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and VOCs, all of which contribute to our ozone problem.”

Currently, about 65 Georgia Power corporate employees participate in an electric vehicle leasing program using General Motor’s EV 1. At one point, Ford Ranger pick-ups and Toyota RAV 4s were also used in the program. The company also operates an electric shuttle bus 10 hours a day, five days a week between a MARTA station and its downtown offices. The shuttle has saved employees more than 177,600 gas-vehicle miles already this year.

Emory University and the Georgia State Energy Office have partnered with the utility in a demonstration of the Ford Th!nk, a new urban vehicle designed for short-distance driving. As part of the pilot program, the Th!nk is currently being used as a station car available for check out when MARTA commuters need to run errands from their work location. The Th!nk will be available for individual consumer purchase in early 2003.

Georgia Power has directly replaced over 80 internal combustion vehicles with EVs for everyday business purposes. Its fleet includes more than 200 light-duty vehicles and 30 neighborhood vehicles, as well as buses, bicycles and non-road vehicles such as forklifts and golf carts.

In addition to the vehicles for its own internal use, Georgia Power has partnered with malls, college and business campuses, the airport and other locations to test and expand electric vehicle use. EVs have been used successfully in settings as varied as plant sites, warehouses, along meter routes and at Zoo Atlanta.

“Georgia Power is committed to improving Georgia’s air quality,” Still said. “Increasing our reliance on electric transportation can provide part of the solution.”

Georgia Power is the largest subsidiary of Southern Company, one of the nation’s largest generators of electricity. The company is an investor-owned, tax-paying utility, serving customers in 57,000 of the state’s 59,000 square miles. Georgia Power’s rates are more than 15 percent below the national average and its 2 million customers are in all but six of Georgia’s 159 counties.