Gasoline Phaseout News – May 2026
The Accidental Climate Activist
Decades of advocacy never fully convinced the world to ditch fossil fuels. A naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz may be doing it in six weeks.
Climate campaigners spent years explaining that gasoline dependence creates price shocks and puts too much power in the hands of volatile regimes. They were right. But explaining it is one thing. Proving it at over $110 a barrel, with a recent peak of $138, is another.
The crisis has done something no campaign ever could. It’s made gasoline feel like what it is: a high-stakes gambling addiction, where the house is always somewhere in the Middle East and the stakes are your grocery bill, your healthcare costs, and your kids’ school budget.
EVs charge on electricity priced by your local utility, not by whoever controls a 21-mile-wide strait. Wind turbines don’t require a carrier strike group to defend. This is exactly the moment Coltura’s work has been building toward: when the case for switching from gasoline to electric vehicles isn’t just environmental, it’s economic.
Chinese EV exports jumped 70% in March. The world is responding. American drivers and policymakers need to respond too, before this window closes.
That’s what Coltura is fighting for. Check what an EV would save you at data.coltura.org.
The Old World Is Losing Power. Time to Finish the Job on Gasoline.
Two milestones just rewrote energy history. In March 2026, renewables surpassed natural gas to become the largest source of U.S. electricity generation for the first time ever: 35% to 34.4%. And globally, wind and solar have now surpassed coal in electricity generation, much sooner than even the industry’s most optimistic forecasts predicted.
What makes these numbers remarkable isn’t just the crossover but what’s driving it. Solar alone met 75% of all new global electricity demand in 2025. Wind and solar together met 99%. The world used more electricity than ever last year, and fossil fuels didn’t grow at all to meet it. Not even in China and India, the world’s two largest fossil power countries, where fossil generation actually fell in 2025 for the first time this century.
Texas is adding 12.9 gigawatts of battery storage this year alone. California batteries recently met 44% of evening peak demand, physically displacing gas plants in real time. In China, solar-plus-storage delivers round-the-clock power at $30 per megawatt-hour, a third the cost of new gas generation. In Germany, onshore wind is already cheaper than simply running an existing gas plant.
The electricity powering EVs is getting dramatically cleaner. Every driver who makes the switch today plugs into a grid that’s rapidly leaving fossil fuels behind.
The grid has turned the corner. Coltura is working to make sure vehicles do too.
Data Insight of the Month:
EVs Provide Average Savings of nearly $25 for a 100-Mile Trip.
Coltura’s EV Cost Savings Index shows that at today’s gas prices, across the US drivers would save on average nearly $25 per 100-mile trip by switching from a gas car to an EV. See the savings for your state and vehicle type at https://data.coltura.org/ev-savings-index.
Gas Is Still Above $4.50. The Families We Work For Are Still Paying.
Last month we told you about the families spending 15% or more of their income on gas. Gas was above $4 a gallon then. It’s $4.53 now, and still climbing.
These aren’t abstract statistics. Superusers, the top 10% of gasoline consumers, account for 35% of all gas burned in the U.S. Many are drivers with long commutes, older vehicles, and no realistic path to an EV without direct support. Coltura exists to change that: connecting them with affordable used EVs, calculating their savings, and pushing for policies that direct incentives to the drivers who need them most.
The crisis that made headlines in March hasn’t gone away. Neither has the underlying vulnerability Coltura’s data identified years before the headlines caught up.
If you’ve been meaning to give, now is the moment. Your support helps us move faster, for the families still paying a price they can’t afford.
Gas Station of the Month:
Shell, Denver, CO
On March 19, a Shell station at 5th and Bryant in Denver distinguished itself by exploding. A natural gas leak triggered a blast that sent two people to the hospital with burn injuries, set a nearby vehicle on fire, and left the building so structurally compromised that firefighters wouldn’t go inside.
Wishing the two injured a full recovery.
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Culture Corner:
Toddlers and Their EV Chargers
The Cozy Coupe has been a fixture of American childhood since 1979, with over 10 million sold by 2009. For nearly all of that time, its optional accessory was a smiling toy gas pump. No longer. Little Tikes now offers the Cozy E-Charging Station, an add-on that lets toddlers plug in their ride just like mom and dad.
The charger fits into the fuel ports of all existing Cozy Coupe models and activates lights and charging sounds at the press of a button. The gasoline era: over, apparently, even for the youngest drivers.
