Photo: La Times
When it comes to the environment, California has some ambitious plans to fight against pollution and greenhouse gas. As more and more electric vehicles are being registered in the Golden State, legislators are coming up with efficient plans towards a cleaner future.
By the end of 2020, California plans to have a third of its electricity coming from renewables, and half by 2030. EV vehicles are increasingly seen as an important factor that can help drive down emissions.
“The state of California has been extremely aggressive in bringing other states to have aggressive greenhouse gas goals and accomplishments: we at the city level are doing the same thing,” Bob Hayden, from the San Francisco Department of the Environment, stated.
Legislators also came up with incentives to encourage more citizens to swap their gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles for a “green” car, such as the permission for single-occupant vehicles with a Clean Air Vehicle Sticker to use high occupancy vehicle lanes or a deduction of up to $5,000 when buying a new full electric or plug-in hybrid light-duty car.
Not only the state is encouraging people to be more eco-friendly but also organizations, such as Charge Across Town. Meg Ruxton, partnerships manager at Charge Across Town, has stated, “I think we need to invest simultaneously in electric cars and charging infrastructure. Consumers are going to buy if there’s charging in place, and businesses are going to put in charging stations if there are enough consumers with cars who are going to come and charge at their businesses.”
At a national level, the US Department of Energy believes that if hybrid or electric vehicles completely replace the fuel-powered ones, the country’s dependence on foreign oil will fall by between 30 to 60 percent and the carbon pollution from the transport sector will also fall by up to 20 percent.
California and the US are not the only entities to care for the environment as more and more authorities worldwide encourage people to drive an EV car.
Amsterdam, for instance, has more than 1,000 charging stations, and the legislators plan to increase that number to 4,000 by 2018. Also, all taxi journeys from the Schipol Airport are made in Tesla Model S vehicles, as CNBC reports.
Arpad Horvath, professor at the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks that electric cars are not the only answer to having a cleaner environment, pointing out biofuels.
“The existing biofuel production system is unsustainable; the future will have to be based on plant waste or household waste or some other waste materials. We’re still figuring out the best way to turn them into biofuels at scale,” Horvath commented.
“The state of California has been extremely aggressive in bringing other states to have aggressive greenhouse gas goals and accomplishments: we at the city level are doing the same thing,” Bob Hayden, from the San Francisco Department of the Environment, stated.
Legislators also came up with incentives to encourage more citizens to swap their gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles for a “green” car, such as the permission for single-occupant vehicles with a Clean Air Vehicle Sticker to use high occupancy vehicle lanes or a deduction of up to $5,000 when buying a new full electric or plug-in hybrid light-duty car.
Not only the state is encouraging people to be more eco-friendly but also organizations, such as Charge Across Town. Meg Ruxton, partnerships manager at Charge Across Town, has stated, “I think we need to invest simultaneously in electric cars and charging infrastructure. Consumers are going to buy if there’s charging in place, and businesses are going to put in charging stations if there are enough consumers with cars who are going to come and charge at their businesses.”
At a national level, the US Department of Energy believes that if hybrid or electric vehicles completely replace the fuel-powered ones, the country’s dependence on foreign oil will fall by between 30 to 60 percent and the carbon pollution from the transport sector will also fall by up to 20 percent.
California and the US are not the only entities to care for the environment as more and more authorities worldwide encourage people to drive an EV car.
Amsterdam, for instance, has more than 1,000 charging stations, and the legislators plan to increase that number to 4,000 by 2018. Also, all taxi journeys from the Schipol Airport are made in Tesla Model S vehicles, as CNBC reports.
Arpad Horvath, professor at the department of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks that electric cars are not the only answer to having a cleaner environment, pointing out biofuels.
“The existing biofuel production system is unsustainable; the future will have to be based on plant waste or household waste or some other waste materials. We’re still figuring out the best way to turn them into biofuels at scale,” Horvath commented.
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