Faraz Rizvi, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, faraz.r@ccaej.org
Abby Figueroa, Union of Concerned Scientists, afigueroa@ucsusa.org
Larisa Manescu, Sierra Club, larisa.manescu@sierraclub.org
San Francisco, CA - Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission finalized a section of its transportation electrification framework, setting near-term priorities for transportation electrification that will guide investments by the state’s utilities over the next several years.
Emphasizing “the urgent need to meet the state’s electric vehicle (EV) policy goals by 2025” and citing projected infrastructure gaps, the decision establishes medium- and heavy-duty vehicle electrification and improving access to home charging for low-income EV drivers as two of its priority areas.
"Frontline communities desperately need zero emission vehicles on the road as soon as possible," said Marven Norman, Policy Specialist for Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. "California's air quality is severely impacted by the emissions from the number of vehicles on the road and with these clear priorities the CPUC can take a bold step to grant access to lower income communities."
California projects that at least 60,000 additional charging stations are needed by 2025 to meet the state’s goal to electrify all cars by 2035, and more than 150,000 stations are needed by 2030 to meet its medium and heavy-duty electrification goals.
“The state needs to frontload investments in EV charging in the near-term to get on a path that will lead to 8 million light-duty and 180,000 medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicles on the road by 2030,” said Sam Houston, Senior Vehicles Analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “The expedited pathways for near-term priority pilots and program extensions in this decision will help avoid any gaps in program funding that would undermine the state’s climate and air quality goals.”
The decision also directs utilities to pilot the use of EVs as backup power during emergencies, like wildfires, and to support installation of charging in new buildings, which can be done at lower cost than retrofits. Within the priority areas, utilities may propose pilot programs up to $20M that will receive expedited Commission review. The decision also establishes an expedited process for extending existing programs (like Southern California Edison's Charge Ready Transport Program), and preserves utilities' ability to propose new full-scale programs through the regular process.
“The climate crisis and the state’s own goals to electrify its transportation sector require fast and bold action,” said Sierra Club Staff Attorney Joe Halso. “Ambitious action on clean transportation must directly center and improve air quality in the most impacted communities, suffering from a daily deluge of dirty commercial trucks. Today’s decision is an important step forward, and we look forward to working with utilities to develop programs that put California on a path to electrify the transportation sector.”
This week’s decision finalizes just one piece of the Commission’s transportation electrification framework, a set of comprehensive guidance that is intended to guide utility investments for the next decade. A draft of the framework was released in February 2019. Since that time, the framework has evolved in response to stakeholder input and as the state has established increasingly ambitious EV goals and regulations, including the Advanced Clean Truck and Innovative Clean Transit rules.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.8 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.