QUICK NEWS, July 30: Plug In To Beat Climate Change And Clean Up; How Utilities Can Drive Plugging In

Plug In To Beat Climate Change And Clean Up Cleaner Cars Are a Win for America, Trump Isn’t Helping

Dan West, July 26, 2018 (National Resources Defense Council)

“Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, so to tackle climate change we need to be speeding away from the internal combustion engine. Electric vehicles (EVs) are leading the way. The EV transition will not only reduce transportation emissions, create jobs for U.S. workers, and provide more choices and fuel savings for consumers, it presents an incredibly lucrative opportunity for whichever carmakers can innovate fast enough to capture the market. It’s helpful to compare the world’s two largest car markets: the United States and China…Chinese carmakers are electrifying their fleets faster than U.S. companies. State controls and public subsidies play a huge role in China’s EV market, and the domestic industry that serves it…Unfortunately, the Trump administration, with its policies discouraging clean car innovation, isn’t helping…” click here for more

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How Utilities Can Drive Plugging In Utilities Should Invest in Electric Vehicle Infrastructure

Daniel Gatti, July 5, 2018 (Union of Concerned Scientists)

“…Across the country, many utilities are stepping up to build the EV infrastructure that we need…The California Public Utilities Commission recently approved $738 million in electric vehicle infrastructure proposed by PG&E, SCE and SDG&E, including hundreds of millions for charging heavy duty vehicles such as buses and trucks…Utilities in Maryland have recently proposed a $104 million investment in charging infrastructure that would create 24,000 charging stations across the state…The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities recently approved a $45 million investment by Eversource. A comparable investment by Massachusetts’ other major utility National Grid is still pending in front of the DPU…Ohio has recently approved a $10 million pilot for electric vehicle charging stations…

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…[Utilities should invest in electric vehicle infrastructure because EVs represent] an enormous opportunity…Converting our vehicle fleet to electricity could add as much as 1,000 terawatt hours of demand onto our electric grid, an increase of about 25 percent of current levels. If managed correctly, this large and flexible load could significantly increase the efficiency of our electric system, which would benefit not only EV drivers but also all ratepayers, providing lower costs…In the long run, widespread deployment of EVs could also be a source of energy storage, filling a critical need as our electricity system moves away from fossil fuels toward intermittent sources of power, such as wind and solar…Building more EV infrastructure will help more people and businesses make the switch…Creating an EV charging network that can compete with our oil infrastructure will require tens of thousands of new charging stations…” click here for more

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