Tell PSTA: Start the Switch to Clean, Quiet Zero Emission Electric Buses
PSTA Votes Wednesday Morning on Electric Buses
PSTA (the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority) votes Wednesday, June 22, on whether to buy new diesel buses or new zero emission electric buses. Sierra Club and the Tampa Bay Zero Emission Coalition support the addition of zero emission electric buses to PSTA's fleet.
What you can do right now to help:
- Sign the community petition to PSTA to ask them to start making the switch this year to zero emission electric buses.
- Attend PSTA's June 22 Board of Directors meeting and tell them face to face to make the switch to electric buses this year. Wear red to help tell PSTA to STOP Polluting Pinellas with toxic diesel emissions. The Board will vote on its 2016 bus purchase at its 9:00 am meeting. PSTA is at 3201 Scherer Drive, St. Petersburg, 33716 – behind the St. Petersburg Clearwater Marriott on Roosevelt.
- If you represent a business or community organization, join the Tampa Bay Zero Emission Coalition by signing our community letter to PSTA asking it to start making the switch now to zero emission electric buses. Email phil.compton@sierraclub.org for the letter. Thanks to the 39 local businesses, neighborhood associations and organizations who have joined the Coalition.
- Call and email PSTA board members today and ask them directly yourself to make the switch this year to zero emission electric buses. You can find contact information for all 15 board members at http://www.psta.net/boardofdirectors.php.
- And after the June 22 Board meeting: Tell the County Commission to help PSTA make the switch with funding from the BP oil disaster settlement for electric bus charging infrastructure, a one-time cost that can make it possible for PSTA to run up to 9 electric buses in downtown St. Pete that would all take turns charging at the same centrally located station. Visit http://www.pinellascounty.org/bpideas.
Why make the switch to electric buses?
They provide a totally different experience for riders: clean, quiet and safe. Passengers find they can carry on a conversation, and neighbors don't hear or smell them as they go by. No more toxic diesel soot!
They help preserve Pinellas County's future as they cut net greenhouse gas emissions by 75%, even including today's sources of electricity, coal and natural gas: 270,000 pounds of carbon/year compared to diesel or natural gas. Over the 12 year life of an electric bus, their overall net pollution will decline towards zero as utilities like Duke Energy add more solar power to their grid.
They slash fuel and maintenance cost, giving them the lowest overall cost of ownership of any bus. As with any electric vehicle, there's far less to maintain, so PSTA staff will be more certain they're keeping all buses in the fleet running safely at all times.
And they reduce the demand for oil that today drives oil companies to continue to push to drill for oil off Florida's beaches, both the Gulf and the Atlantic. The surest way to end the push for offshore drilling is to reduce our demand for oil. Electric buses never use any oil, period.
What is an electric bus?
A bus that, rather than run on diesel or compressed natural gas, uses electricity to power a battery. This means no gasoline, no dirty oil changes, no internal combustion engine, no dirty diesel exhaust, and no greenhouse gas emissions. They charge up in anywhere between five and 360 minutes and go between 30 and 195 miles between charges, depending on the model.
For more information, contact Sierra Club's Florida Healthy Air Campaign by emailing phil.compton@sierraclub.org.