Lately, the Sierra Club has partnered with the Community Environmental Council to push for more electric vehicles. Last year, we got the Santa Barbara MTD to set a goal of 100% electric buses by 2030, and helped secure a statewide victory towards the electrification of buses and public transportation in general. Yesterday, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted to make a big move to electrify their fleet cars.
It started with the County Climate Action Plan update last December. It was clear that the county was not meeting its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Sierra Club urged more concrete actions, progress and a goal commiserate with the latest science. At Supervisor Das Williams' urging, the Board of Supervisors asked staff to come back with options for increasing the number of electric cars in their fleet.
Last week we finally saw the staff report, and it didn't look good. By overstating the price differential between electric cars and gasoline cars, adding in expensive charging infastructure and understating the fuel and maintenance savings, it appeared that electrifying the fleet would be an expensive proposition. We jumped in with an analysis showing that it could be done cost effectively. After all, studies show that electric vehicles have a lower total cost of ownership compared to gasoline cars. With over 1000 EVs in their fleet, New York City reports massive savings on maintenance. Over the life of the cars, EVs could save the county money.
We were able to reassure the Board of Supervisors, and they voted -- unanimously -- to choose electric vehicles for all fleet cars up for replacement in the next year -- about 55 cars. Staff will research how to purchase cars and charging in the most cost effective way and report back in a year on their progress. The county's fleet is over a thousand cars so choosing electric will have a big impact. In addition, the charging infastructure could potentially be made available to the county's 4600 employees.
Board of Supervisors discuss fleet electrification options at their March 19, 2019 meeting:
EV advocates celebrated the victory. (Pictured below: Katie Davis with Sierra Club, Karen Brill with Santa Barbara Climate Reality Chapter and Michael Chicos with the Community Environmental Council.)
