Fuel prices have fallen in Illinois during the past month. After weeks of watching the price of a gallon climb closer to $5 a gallon this summer, AAA Chicago reported in its Fuel Gauge Report last week that regular unleaded gasoline decreased 29 cents bringing the August average down to $3.92.

The bad news is Chicago and Cook County's average remains above $4 at a wallet-bleeding $4.10 and Illinois' average is still $1 higher than last year.

But Ted Lowe, of Wheaton, Ill., is not concerned. In fact, he's smiling about it. Lowe, president of Fox Valley Electric Auto Association, sees the oil crisis as an opportunity to promote alternative fuel vehicle use and teach the public how to convert their cars to electric power.

Q: How did you get involved with FVEAA?

A: The Association started in the mid-'70s during the first oil crisis. The flow of oil was interrupted and there was a shortage. Our founders didn't want to wait in the gas lines, so they learned how to make electric cars. It came out of that do-it-yourself spirit. I've been with FVEAA about 10 years. Initially, I liked the technology, the fact that it was a modern thing, ecological and the technology interested me.

Q: How much of an impact have rising gas prices and the going-green phenomenon had on your membership?

A: Oh, it's huge. We're at 219 members, a record by threefold of what we ever had before. $4 gas per gallon for gasoline is a wake up for a lot of people. We actually had 150 people at our last meeting. Pretty good, for a little nonprofit.

Q: Has this changed the diversity of the membership?

A: Three years ago it was very small, maybe 75 (members), but not nearly that many people came to meetings. It was kind of a men's club, you know? But the last few years it's grown. Now it's grandma and grandpa, man and wife, kids, college kids. It's just a large variety of people, people who are looking for solutions to high gas prices, people that care about the environment, people that care about foreign oil. It's not one political party or religion. It's really just a group of people bonded by common sense.

Q: Does the FVEAA ever convert gas cars to electric as part of their efforts?

A: We do a club car. It's not every year, but last year we did a Porsche 944, which is a fun little sports car. We did it for about six months, Saturday mornings. The car came out great. There are a couple of other groups within the membership that announce when they're working on cars and invite others to help out and show up.

Q: How much of a time investment is converting a car?

A: It is a fairly good time investment, a summer project, but it's not brain surgery. The Porsche, last year, was probably my largest involvement in terms of the conversion. I was the project leader for that car. It was excellent, all the working together, all the things we learned. We want people to learn that converting cars may not be a weekend project, but it's not rocket science either. It's just a matter of knowing what to do and plugging along -- no pun intended.

Q: U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., recently introduced in Congress the Apollo Energy Independence Act, which pushes for permanent tax incentives for owners of alternative fuel vehicles. Do you think if the bill passes it will help alternative vehicle markets?

A: Everybody has a different opinion about how things should run and which direction we should go. Any kind of new alternative approach is better than what we're doing now, which is complete dependence on oil. We need to develop a wide array of different approaches, because there's not going to be any one thing that replaces oil. Think of oil as this big trust fund you got from your rich daddy. You can spend it and spend it, it never gets replenished, but it's so big you can keep spending it. Eventually, it will run out, unless you've invested some of that money in things that will give you interest. To me that is building up an infrastructure of wind, solar, steel and other forms of alternative energy. The bill ties together our oil use and alternative forms together, which is good.

Q: What are FVEAA's plans for the future?

A: One of the projects we have going on is we're trying to build an infrastructure of charging stations around the Chicago-land area. You pull your car up to this (station) and you can plug it in and charge. We offer free charging equip to any organization, company or group that's willing to install and operate the charge for use by the public. There are hundreds of those charging stations in California. We're just getting started here-we might have about a dozen. Many towns are showing interest in the program especially in the last year. If you have charging stations and you have that kind of technology you can largely say goodbye to your urban and suburban driving needs of gas, not to mention the improvement of the air quality.

Q: I assume you drive an electric car yourself. How many electric cars do you have?

A: I have just one, my Chevrolet F-10 truck. I bought my car used as an electric car. I had planned to do a conversion, but could never find the right car. So, I bought it from a guy in Florida. I've had it seven years now and love it. Ninety-nine percent of my driving is in that car. Until last week I hadn't bought gasoline in almost four years, but I drove 1,200 miles to a family vacation and bought 30 gallons worth. It went up, man! It's nice driving by the stations.

Q: Do you ever miss driving gas-powered vehicles?

A: (Electric car drivers) have a thing called the easy grin. The first time you drive your electric car you have this grin you can't wipe off your face because it's quiet, it's powerful and you don't ever have to put gas in it. After seven years the grin has not gone away. In fact, it probably had a resurgence this year with the price of gas going up. I don't want anyone to suffer, but I do gloat a little bit and that's part of the bragging rights.