November 20, 2020: Today, Sierra Club filed its final set of
with the Florida Public Service Commission on the creation of a statewide Electric Vehicle (EV) Highway Charging Master Plan. In October, Sierra Club submitted
to the Commission and engaged in the stakeholder workshop process. Sierra Club advocated for a suite of policy solutions aimed at promoting equitable growth in EVs and ensuring well-managed EV charging that will benefit all Florida ratepayers – including those that do not drive an EV. We urged the Commission to move beyond the important but narrow focus of state highway vehicle charging and to contemplate a larger, more methodical and comprehensive assessment of the future of EVs in Florida.
With more than 16 million light-duty vehicles (the cars and trucks many of us drive), but only 66,000 EVs, Florida is poised for exponential growth in the EV market in the coming decades. With battery costs continuing to decline, forecasts predict Florida will have more than 1.4 million EVs on its roads by 2030 and more than 7 million by 2040. But even these robust figures could increase dramatically, as the Biden Administration has pledged to take concrete, critically important steps to promote transportation electrification, including investing in 500,000 new EV charging stations nationwide over the next four years, expanding tax credits and incentives for consumers to switch to EVs, electrifying all 500,000 school buses in the U.S., and investing in zero emission public transit options.
With our work at the Federal level, in statehouses, and in public utility commissions across the country, Sierra Club and the Environmental Law Program will continue to advocate for strong policies that drive a swift and equitable transition to a clean energy future. Sierra Club was represented in this docket by Environmental Law Program Senior Attorney Nathaniel Shoaff.