On the first sunny day in the Bay Area in nearly a week, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations in front of San Francisco City Hall , in another step forward in making the Bay Area the “EV Capital of the U.S.”
The high-profile charging stations are part of a nine-step policy plan announced back in November by Mayor Newsom, San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, to transform the Bay Area into the “Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S.”
“Electric vehicles are the future of transportation and the Bay Area is the testing ground for the technology,” said Newsom, adding that the city began using plug-in hybrids in the city’s fleet last year. “Now, for the first time the public can plug-in to the next generation of cars and take them for a drive in San Francisco,” the Mayor said.
>>Read Mayor Newsom’s post at gas2.0
According to Newsom, the city will use tax breaks to promote sales of electric vehicles and encourage homes and businesses to make charging stations widely available. The city will also look at ways to speed up the permitting process to install charging outlets at homes and businesses.
But the media coverage and the buzz at Wednesday’s opening in Civic Center Park wasn’t purely a function of its California location. The opening was timed perfectly with the big boost provided to EVs by the economic stimulus package, thus garnering national attention, as well.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocates $2 billion in grants for manufacturing advanced batteries, plus tax credits to cover the cost of manufacturing facilities; it also provides tax credits of up to $7,500 for those who buy new plug-in electric vehicles; sets aside $300 million for federal agencies to buy alternatively-fueled vehicles, $400 million for “transportation electrification,” and another $4.5 billion for improving the nation’s electric grid.
So while California’s unprecedented budget woes continue to drag the state coffers down and threaten the viability of some of the state’s progressive environmental policies, the City of San Francisco continues to test the boundaries of what a municipality can do by itself to push environmental protection forward.
Images: Tim Hurst
About Timothy B. Hurst
There is an inventor from Wisconsin who invented an all-electric car in the form of a Ford Ranger that was shown at the KARE 11 fair booth at the 2008 Minnesota State Fair.
It is capable of reaching 100 miles per hour in speed, has a range of 300 miles, charges in 10 minutes and is pollution free with only the pollution that is done to make the electricity to charge it.
The inventor of this invention has, to my understanding, approached Ford Motor Company with his invention. The Ford Motor Company, in my estimation, should latch onto this idea, pronto.
My understanding is there are members of Congress who are trying to shoot down this idea of an electric car.
Where is there any common sense in this country?