electric vehicles – Page 4

SuzanneSeptember 10, 2016Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable LivingAB32, electric vehicles, ghg reduction, global warming, renewable energy, SB375, vehicle miles travelled

California extends most ambitious US climate change law

Alicia Chang, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A decade ago, California vowed to dramatically slash greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.With the nation’s most populous state on pace to meet that target, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday charted a new goal to further cut carbon pollution by extending and expanding the landmark climate change law.
It will “keep California on the move to clean up the environment,” Brown said in a Los Angeles park before signing a pair of bills that survived heavy opposition from the oil industry, business groups and Republicans.
Experts said going forward will be more challenging because the new goal — to reduce emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 — is considerably more ambitious and many of the easy solutions have been employed.
“The long and the short of it is that meeting the goal will require sustained regulatory effort across all sectors of the economy,” said Ann Carlson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles.
California is on track to meet the 2020 climate goal that called for reducing emissions to 1990 levels by restricting the carbon content of gasoline and diesel fuel, encouraging sales of zero-emission vehicles and imposing a tax on pollution.
The state plans to build on that foundation and ramp up other efforts including increasing renewable electricity use, boosting energy efficiency in existing buildings and putting 1.5 million zero-emissions vehicles on the road, according to the California Air Resources Board, which is in charge of climate policy.
Read more at: California extends most ambitious US climate change law | The Press Democrat

SuzanneMay 19, 2016Land Use, Sustainable Livingdevelopment, electric vehicles, EV charging stations, low-income housing, rooftop solar, transit oriented development

Windsor approves Vintage Oaks on the Town Green housing project

Clark Mason, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

… Councilman Sam Salmon, the lone dissenting vote, said he was still troubled over the removal of trees and that the original low-income units proposed were dropped.

It’s the biggest housing development to get approval since Windsor incorporated and it will go a long way toward providing badly needed rental housing.

That was the consensus of the Town Council members Wednesday as they voted 4-1 to approve a revised development plan for the 387-unit Vintage Oaks on the Town Green, the once controversial project planned for the site of the former Windsorland mobile home and trailer park.“This is a great day for Sonoma County,” said Mayor Mark Millan, adding that it will provide new housing choices for both young and old.
“It’s sorely needed,” he said.

It’s a huge complement to the downtown and the new Bell Village center,” Councilwoman Deb Fudge said in reference to the site it will occupy just to the north of the new Oliver’s Market and shopping center.
She and other council members touted the ability residents will have to walk to the nearby station to ride SMART commuter trains, which Fudge said could be in service in Windsor by the summer of 2018, if grant funding comes through to extend the line beyond its current terminus just north of Santa Rosa.
Developers hope to begin building the first half of Vintage Oaks as early as next month and be ready to rent units out by the summer of 2017, according to project manager Peter Stanley, a principal in Santa Rosa-based ArchiLOGIX.
Southern California developer Bob Bisno said he and his partners expect to spend as much as $135 million to build the combination of apartments and townhomes, which will feature rooftop solar panels and a dozen electric vehicle charging stations initially, with potential to add more.
Read more at: Windsor approves Vintage Oaks on the Town Green housing project

SuzanneMarch 20, 2016Transportationelectric vehicles, ghg reduction, rebates

State’s rebate program for green car buyers shifts gears March 29

Mark Glover, SACRAMENTO BEE
A state program that aims to make clean vehicles more accessible to California drivers will soon implement increased incentives for low- and moderate-income consumers.
At the same time, the program will institute an income cap restricting the eligibility of relatively high-income green car buyers.
The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project, administered by the San Diego-based Center for Sustainable Energy for the California Air Resources Board, said rebates for all types of eligible light-duty passenger vehicles will increase by $1,500 across the board, effective March 29.
Current rebates cover a wide range of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles ($1,500), battery electric vehicles ($2,500) and fuel cell electric vehicles ($5,000).
The increased rebates will apply statewide to vehicle purchases or leases.The list of eligible vehicles includes the Hyundai Tucson Fuel Cell, Toyota Mirai, BMW i3, Chevrolet Spark EV, Ford Focus Electric, Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Toyota RAV4 EV, Chevrolet Volt and the Honda Fit EV.
To qualify for the increased rebates, applicants must have household incomes less than or equal to 300 percent of the federal poverty level. For an individual, ARB said the gross annual income limit is $35,640, and for a household of four, it’s $72,900.
ARB noted that, when combined with the $7,500 federal tax credit for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles, individual car savings for low- and moderate-income buyers under the new eligibility requirements will range from $10,500 up to $11,500.
Read more at: State’s rebate program for green car buyers shifts gears March 29 | The Sacramento Bee

SuzanneOctober 23, 2015Climate Change & Energy, Transportationelectric vehicles, environmental education

Sonoma County students to build electric vehicles

Jeremy Hay, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
The students from Analy High School’s automotive and electromechanical technologies class trooped from one room into another in Switch Vehicles’ Sebastopol workshop, where a control box for an electrical car was being assembled.

“When you guys see this in here, we are going to build it in class,” their teacher, Sean Fleming, called out. “It’s going to look great on a college application.”

Analy High is one of five Sonoma County schools where students will build electric cars from the chassis up as part of a public-private partnership that hopes to create a flow of sought-after employees and, eventually, to strengthen the local market for alternatively powered vehicles.

Switch Vehicles, an electric vehicle manufacturer that has started the program in 15 high schools and colleges nationally, will train teachers in a curriculum it designed and provide vehicle kits to the schools.

The program brings together Switch with the county’s independent power agency, its office of education and a private local foundation. It is more than a course in assembling parts, said Peter Oliver, co-founder of the company.

“They go a lot more in-depth into the mechanics and components of an electric vehicle. Students write reports, they do homework, they learn Ohm’s Law (a precept governing electricity),” Oliver said.

SuzanneSeptember 10, 2015Climate Change & Energyelectric vehicles, ghg reduction

Report highlights Sonoma County’s growing market for electric vehicles

Guy Kovner, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sales of EVs in Sonoma County — Sonoma County EV sales by model (Center for Climate Protection.)

Sonoma County is on a roll with electric vehicles, with dealers selling one of the clean-air cars every seven hours this year, according to a new report by the Santa Rosa-based Center for Climate Protection.
The growing market, with Nissan Leafs, Chevrolet Volts and Toyota Prius plug-in hybrids leading the way, has amounted to more than 1,900 electric vehicles purchased in the county since 2010, according to state records.
Those vehicles have offset about 7,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions that would have been produced by traditional fuel-burning cars, said the report, which looked at the landscape of electric vehicles — including hybrids — in Sonoma County.
“That’s pretty impressive,” said Doron Amiran, electric vehicle program manager with the Center for Climate Protection, which released the report late last month.
The center is backing Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to put 1.5 million zero-emission vehicles on California roadways by 2025, and Amiran said Sonoma County is well on its way to that goal, accounting for 1.6 percent of California’s EV sales to date.
Read more at: Report highlights Sonoma County’s growing market for electric | The Press Democrat

SuzanneFebruary 24, 2015Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable Living, Transportationelectric vehicles, PG&ELeave a comment

PG&E seeks $654 million to build 25,000 EV charging stations

Julia Pyper, GREENTECH MEDIA
February 10, 2015. Pacific Gas & Electric filed a proposal yesterday for $654 million in ratepayer dollars to build 25,000 electric vehicle charging stations across its service area in northern and central California.If approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, the program will be the largest deployment of electric vehicle EV chargers in the country. California, the leading market for plug-in cars in the United States, currently has about 6,000 public charging stations.
Consumer advocates, however, including the Utility Reform Network TURN, are concerned that the program puts an unfair cost burden on ratepayers for infrastructure that only a small percentage of customers will use. A typical residential customer would pay an additional 70 cents per month to cover the costs of the program from 2018 to 2022.
“We are very skeptical about the value of investing so much ratepayer money and betting it all on electric vehicles,” Mark Toney, executive director of TURN, told the San Jose Mercury News.
PG&E estimates it will incur $551 million in capital costs and $103 million in operating expenses over the course of the five-year program. Pending approval, installation would begin in 2017.
Read more via PG&E Seeks $654 Million to Build 25,000 EV Charging Stations : Greentech Media.

SuzanneJanuary 29, 2014Climate Change & Energy, Sonoma Coast, Transportationelectric vehiclesLeave a comment

Electric vehicles to get a coastal charge

Matt Brown, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Richard Sachen enjoys driving his electric Nissan Leaf from his home in Petaluma to the coast. The tech entrepreneur used to worry about having enough juice to make it home.

Not any more. Sachen recently installed an electric vehicle charger at Point Reyes Station to eliminate so-called “range anxiety.”

Sunspeed Enterprises, the company Sachen founded in 2012, is developing a network of fast charging stations up and down the coast from Eureka to Malibu. Sachen calls it the “Pacific Coast Sun Trail.”

EV advocates say the new network will fill an overlooked niche by adding charging infrastructure in rural areas that attract tourists while other companies have focused on installing charging stations in urban centers and along major highways.

via Sunspeed Enterprises, Point Reyes, Richard Sachen, Eureka, Malibu, Greenlots, electric vehicles | PressDemocrat.com.

SuzanneJuly 9, 2013September 22, 2018Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable Livingelectric vehiclesLeave a comment

Electric vehicle sales grow in Sonoma County

Matt Brown, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Once the bailiwick of tinkers and hobbyists, electric vehicles are popping up all over Sonoma County as green-minded and tech-savvy drivers warm up to plug-in cars.

The market for EVs has expanded dramatically since December 2010, when the Nissan dealership in Petaluma became the first car dealer in the nation to sell the Leaf, the world’s first mass market all-electric car.

via Electric vehicle sales grow in Sonoma County | The Press Democrat.

SuzanneApril 13, 2013Climate Change & Energy, Sustainable Living, Transportationelectric vehicles, energy efficiencyLeave a comment

Electric vehicles at 'Day on the Green'

Enviro Updates

The North Bay Electric Auto Association and Sierra Club’s Sonoma Group co-sponsored a show and tell of electric vehicles at Montgomery Village’s ‘Day on the Green’ in Santa Rosa today. Dealers and enthusiasts brought Leafs, Volts, Fits, Priuses, Teslas and home-converted vehicles to exhibit.
Electric cars are growing in popularity in the North Bay, and charging stations are multiplying. For a current list of stations, go to plugshare.com.

Environmental Center of Sonoma County

Tag: electric vehicles