Back
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Federal transit officials grant $99.49 million to NJ Transit to help it upgrade a bus garage to charge and service dozens of electric buses and add solar canopies. (New Jersey Advance Media, NorthJersey.com)
ALSO:
WIND: Ørsted has finished its purchase of the 50% stake in Sunrise Wind — a planned 924 MW offshore wind farm near New York — it didn’t already own from Eversource for $152 million. (news release)
SOLAR:
GRID:
BATTERIES: Pennsylvania lawmakers advance a bill to establish disposal requirements for small-to-medium-sized batteries following lithium-ion battery fires that have repeatedly damaged a recycling facility. (WTAE)
BUILDINGS:
CLEAN ENERGY: Canton, New York, begins surveying its residents to see who has taken clean energy actions, like subscribing to a community solar project or installing heat pumps. (NCPR)
CLIMATE: A South Portland neighborhood is Maine’s hottest heat island, with temperatures 11.1 degrees Fahrenheit higher than greener nearby communities.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The White House announces $1.7 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding will go to 11 car, motorcycle, truck and bus factories to help them reconfigure to make electric vehicles, provided those companies match the federal investment themselves. (E&E News)
ALSO: Lucid and Fisker recall thousands of electric vehicles over an issue they say could cause a loss of power. (Quartz)
GRID:
EMISSIONS: As the U.S. EPA commits to updating methane emissions standards at landfills, states like California, Maryland, and Washington could provide a blueprint. (Canary Media)
WIND:
ELECTRIFICATION:
NUCLEAR: The shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which experienced an infamous partial meltdown 45 years ago, is among a growing number of retired U.S. nuclear plants that could be recommissioned as power demand grows. (Washington Post)
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
Electric vehicles are gaining ground in Nevada, with new cheaper models and federal incentives enticing drivers away from gasoline-dependent transportation.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is expected to soon issue updated pollution limits for new passenger cars and trucks that could slash billions of tons of planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution.
And in Nevada, the push for widespread electric-car adoption by President Joe Biden could also be a boon for the state economy.
EV advocates at a press conference Wednesday highlighted how electrification has created high-paying union jobs and billions in infrastructure investments.
Nevada has pulled in $15 billion in private investment in electric vehicle and battery production, creating more than 12,000 jobs, according to a recent analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund, an environmental advocacy group.
Nevada ranks fifth in the country for new investments in electric vehicle and battery manufacturing, according to the Environmental Defense Fund. The state also ranks fifth in terms of electric vehicle adoption per 1,000 vehicles, with about 45,000 registered electric cars on the road.
Investments in infrastructure for electric vehicles have been spurred by $27 billion in federal, states, and local investments nationally.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 in Nevada has trained thousands of union workers to meet those new demands of electric vehicle infrastructure. Hunter Stern, assistant business manager of IBEW Local 1245, said large investments in charging stations in the state have already resulted in good-paying union jobs for Nevada residents.
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a mandate requiring NV Energy to implement a plan to expand infrastructure for charging stations. The utility invested $100 million in an effort to build nearly two thousand electric vehicle chargers over three years.
“That’s now jobs for IBEW members,” Stern said, during the press conference at the Las Vegas Convention Center. “We hope to install more and more charging stations at facilities like the convention center. We’ve gotten charging stations in many of the casinos and hotels here in Las Vegas, and in Reno and Sparks, but we want more.”
A recent analysis by the International Council on Clean Transportation found that the growth of charging infrastructure could create more than 160,000 jobs by 2032, while about 50% of those jobs will be electrical installation, maintenance and repair jobs.
“Those numbers are going to be skewed higher here in Nevada because of the commitment the state has already made, the plans that are being made, and the work that is coming,” Stern said.
Stern said IBEW Local 1245 in Nevada has trained more than 1,000 workers in the state to work on transportation electrification and has increased the training capacity at facilities in the state to train enough workers to meet demand.
“The state adopted an aggressive, IBEW-endorsed EV charging infrastructure plan that has already met several of its targets. We are meeting the moment,” Stern continued.
Nevada is also on track to receive $38 million from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program, funding that will pay for even more charging stations in the state.
Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy highlighted the county’s plan to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, a goal that will require electric vehicle buy-in, said McCurdy.
“It’s our job as elected officials to address extreme heat and attain air quality standards. Nearly a third of greenhouse gas pollution comes from the transportation sector, and zero emission clean cars will protect the health of Las Vegas and help clean our air,” McCurdy said.
“We’re doing everything we can to improve our electric vehicle infrastructure,” he continued.
Electric vehicles are also becoming more affordable in Nevada, according to the International Council on Clean Transportation.
There are 37 EV models available in Nevada for less than the average new vehicle purchase price of $48,000, with 12 models available for less than $35,000, said David Kieve, president of Environmental Defense Fund Action, the political arm of the group. On average, Nevadans can save up to $27,900 on an electric vehicle compared to a gas-powered vehicle over 10 years, according to the group’s analysis.
Americans are being incentivized more than ever to purchase elective vehicles. Electric vehicle owners can receive as much as a $7,500 federal tax rebate on a new EV or $4,000 for a used one.
“If you’re not sure whether your next car, truck, or SUV should be electric, just ask one of the 45,000 people in the state who own them. Ask them whether they miss spending their hard-earned money at the gas pump, or on costly repairs,” Kieve said.
Nevada Current is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Nevada Current maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Hugh Jackson for questions: info@nevadacurrent.com. Follow Nevada Current on Facebook and X.
Massachusetts is in the process of tripling the size of its first-in-the-nation vehicle fleet electrification program following a recent influx of federal money.
“We are really looking at the barriers, the challenges, the things that we need to figure out to get decarbonization to happen at scale,” said Emily Reichert, CEO of the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center.
A $5 million infusion from the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act will allow the Massachusetts Fleet Advisor program to serve as many as 200 small businesses, nonprofits, and cities and towns served by municipal electric utilities, up from the original target of 65. The money will also allow the program to run through 2026.
The fleet advisor concept pioneered in Massachusetts is getting traction elsewhere. California launched a similar program in June 2023, and New Jersey will soon be introducing its own version.
“A lot of other states are taking notice and building on this model,” said Jordan Stutt, Northeast region senior director for CALSTART, the clean transportation nonprofit running the program for the state.
Transportation is responsible for 37% of Massachusetts’ greenhouse emissions, making the move to electric vehicles a vital element of the state’s strategy for going carbon neutral by 2050. In pursuit of this goal, the state’s incentive program provides rebates of $3,500 for eligible electric car purchases (with additional money available for low-income buyers), $7,500 for medium-duty electric vehicles, and from $15,000 to $90,000 for larger electric trucks.
Fleet vehicles, however, are a particularly important — and tricky — segment of the market. While personal vehicles generally spend most of the day parked, fleet cars and trucks tend to be driven for longer portions of the day, heightening their emissions impact. In Massachusetts, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles — which includes everything from a senior center’s mini-bus to a supermarket chain’s tractor-trailer — make up 3% of the vehicles on the road, yet produce 20% of the state’s transportation emissions.
At the same time, switching to electric is a more complicated process for fleet managers than it is for individual consumers. Organizations must consider their long-term budgeting, which vehicles will need replacing when, what available vehicles would meet their needs, and whether their infrastructure is suitable for charging stations. In many cases, decisions must be discussed and approved by multiple stakeholders, like a nonprofit’s board of directors or all of the partners in a business.
The numbers suggest fleets are making the conversion at a slower rate than personal owners. Since the state made electric fleet vehicles eligible for incentives in 2021 it has issued 227 rebates to light-duty fleet vehicles, 95 rebates for heavy-duty pickup trucks and similar vehicles, and seven rebates for larger trucks. During the same span, the incentive program issued nearly 28,000 rebates overall.
“There is a lot of planning work that goes into getting a fleet owner to the point where they can really take advantage of electrifying the fleet,” Reichert said.
The Massachusetts Fleet Advisor program was conceived in 2021 as a way to overcome some of these challenges. With initial funding of $1 million, the program was designed to offer no-cost fleet electrification assessment reports and procurement assistance to organizations with interest in moving away from fossil fuels but without the resources to do all the legwork involved.
“A small business owner that’s just worried about the day-to-day doesn’t have the time to look into all that,” said Jennifer Kritzler, CALSTART’s Northeast region deputy director. “Mass Fleet Advisor becomes a great resource to answer those questions.”
The process begins with a brief phone call in which an organization learns more about the program and whether it would be a good fit. To be eligible, an entity must have a fleet of at least three vehicles, at least one of which must be medium- or heavy-duty. Then, the organization answers questions about its current fleet, facilities, and goals.
The program has earmarked half of its funds to work in environmental justice neighborhoods: those with high populations of color or lower average incomes, which have traditionally borne a disproportionate share of environmental burdens. Fleets that are based in or regularly drive through these areas will fall into this segment.
“We’re really trying to include a focus not only on the emissions but on the benefits of reducing air pollution in communities that are highly affected by this,” Reichert said.
The initial communication is followed by a site visit. A recent site visit in the town of Ipswich involved touring town hall, the department of public works, and the Ipswich Electric Light Department. Consultants from program partner the Better Together Brain Trust talked to employees about how the town’s handful of electric vehicles are charged and deployed, what the current infrastructure is like, and what they are hoping or expecting to see as the town evolves toward greater use of electric vehicles.
The site visit helps reveal dynamics not captured by the questionnaire: In Ipswich, the assessors discovered that their initial thoughts about where chargers might work was complicated by the parking needs of the town’s council on aging.
“We’re getting absolutely the best information from the local experts,” said Nicole Voudren, president of the Better Together Brain Trust.
When the assessment is complete, it will provide truly useful information to the town, said Rick Mitchell, Ipswich climate resiliency manager.
“The results, when we see those, will provide a platform for intelligent decision-making,” he said. “We’ll have objective, independent, third-party information on the options. This helps summarize what would be a very labor-intensive undertaking in one place.”
Mass Fleet Advisor does not provide any money toward buying electric vehicles, nor does it require participants to make any purchases. However, up to 75 participants that decide to implement some or all of their plans will also be able to receive assistance with the procurement process: The fleet advisor program will help these participants locate appropriate vehicles, connect with dealers, apply for incentives, train their workforces, and develop standard operating procedures for the new vehicles.
“We’re really excited for this not to be a one-time thing, then we walk away,” Kritzler said. “We want to be a resource for folks as they go through their journey.”
So far, 50 organizations — from dry cleaners and lumberyards to universities and municipalities — have signed on to participate, and 20 completed reports have been delivered.
To make sure they are able to make full use of the new funds, the program partners are ramping up their marketing and recruitment efforts, reaching out to community organizations and chambers of commerce, and planning events that allow organizations to see and even drive electric trucks.
“I’ve found when you get someone behind the wheel of a truck, it’s the best tool for converting people to believing that electric vehicles can work for them,” Kritzler said.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: U.S. electric vehicle buyers have received more than $1 billion in point-of-sale rebates since the Treasury Department launched the instant incentives in January, discounting an estimated quarter of the 600,000 EVs sold so far this year. (E&E News)
ALSO:
OIL & GAS:
COAL:
GRID:
CLIMATE: Researchers expect average U.S. electric bills to be 8% higher this year than last due in part to warming temperatures, and urge governments to bar electricity shutoffs during extreme heat. (Utility Dive)
ELECTRIFICATION: California lawmakers introduce legislation that would allow utilities to voluntarily pay to electrify entire neighborhoods one by one instead of maintaining and replacing aging natural gas distribution networks. (Canary Media)
EMISSIONS: North Carolina regulators receive hundreds of comments complaining Duke Energy’s plan to meet state emission goals arbitrarily limits solar and battery storage and relies on unproven hydrogen technology to justify building new gas plants. (Energy News Network)
SOLAR:
One big automaker is questioning whether hybrids are a stepping stone on the way to zero-emission vehicles — or something more permanent.
With a lot of the country still lacking high-speed charging stations, range anxiety can be a real concern for rural Americans. And if you don’t have a driveway or accessible place to plug in, charging at home isn’t easy either.
The Biden administration is working on the first part of that dilemma, including with a new round of funding to build EV chargers announced last week. In the meantime, many automakers and experts see plug-in hybrids that combine a taste of electric driving with a combustion engine as a stepping stone to fully electric cars.
Consumers seem to agree: U.S. hybrid sales shot up 45% in the first quarter of this year, while EV sales slowed a tad, according to MotorIntelligence.com. But at a conference last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley suggested those surging sales are changing his long-term view of hybrids, Reuters reports.
“We should stop talking about it as transitional technology,” Farley said of hybrids. “Many of our hybrids in the U.S. are now more profitable than their non-hybrid equivalent.”
But there’s a big problem with sticking with hybrids for too long, as General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra noted at the same conference. “It’s not the end game because it’s not zero emission,” Barra said, doubling down on her company’s promise to fully transition to EVs.
On average, gas cars emit more than 350 grams of carbon per mile driven over their lifetime, while hybrids emit around 260 grams per mile, MIT researchers have found. EVs are meanwhile responsible for about 200 grams per mile, when you take into account the emissions tied to building a car and producing the electricity they run on.
And even better? Swapping out as much driving as possible for walking, public and public transit.
🏭 We’re good on fossil fuels: The world already has enough planned fossil fuel projects in the pipeline to cover predicted energy demand through 2050, a study finds, suggesting countries should halt new permits. (The Guardian)
🚌 Jumpstarting electric school buses: The Biden administration announces nearly $900 million for 500 school districts across the country to buy clean buses, most of them electric, in the latest round of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. (Canary Media)
💰 Investing in green: Clean energy and transportation investments totaled a record high of $71 billion in the first quarter of the year. (Utility Dive)
🚧 Clean innovation’s holdup: The CEO of the nation’s largest residential solar company discusses how the company is trying to innovate in a sector held back by the utility industry’s “slow and no” culture. (Energy News Network)
💨 No excuses on methane cuts: A study of U.S. EPA data finds reported methane emissions from U.S. gas extraction dropped 37% between 2015 and 2022 even as production surged, suggesting the industry can curb leaks without limiting production. (Canary Media)
🚗 Problematic EV origins: U.S. environmental justice advocates turn their attention to the Congo, where the industry mining cobalt essential to electric vehicle batteries is ripe with worker exploitation. (Capital B)
🌡️ Heating up: An analysis of death certificates finds that 2023 was a record year for heat-related deaths and illnesses, especially in Arizona, Texas and other southern states. (Associated Press)
🏠 Hey, I’m weatherizin’ here: New York launches the country’s first energy rebate program supported by federal Inflation Reduction Act funds, which will help low-to-moderate-income homeowners make energy efficient upgrades. (Utility Dive, Gothamist)
TRANSPORTATION: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin declares the state will no longer tie its vehicle emissions standards to California’s more restrictive rules — which phase out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 — but critics argue he doesn’t have the authority to unilaterally roll back a law passed by the Democratic legislature in 2021. (Washington Post)
ALSO: The small city of Charlottesville, Virginia, moves to grow its bus fleet over the next decade and phase out diesel buses entirely by 2040, matching much larger cities in its commitment to an emissions-free transit system. (Energy News Network)
UTILITIES: As Alabama courts more companies that want to power their operations with renewables, Alabama Power looks for ways to incorporate more clean energy into its portfolio. (Lagniappe)
EMISSIONS: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to remove a monthly fee from its bills for participation in a regional carbon market from which the state has withdrawn. (Virginia Mercury)
WIND: Dominion Energy meets with residents of a Virginia community about construction of a facility to bring power onshore from its planned offshore wind farm. (WTKR)
HYDROPOWER: An Alabama-based company plans an expansion in Knoxville, Tennessee, after acquiring a firm that makes water-powered generators. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
PIPELINES:
COAL ASH: Testing at a growing North Carolina sinkhole where coal ash is used as filler material indicates it hasn’t contaminated a town’s drinking water, but concerns remain. (WFAE)
OIL & GAS:
CLEAN ENERGY: A North Carolina bill would provide a new financing mechanism for commercial property improvements such as solar installations and energy efficiency upgrades, but the state treasurer argues the program is unconstitutional. (Port City Daily)
CLIMATE: U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse says Florida’s insurance industry appears to be “swirling the drain” as insurers dramatically increase premiums or pull out of the state altogether because of its climate risks. (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)
COMMENTARY: West Virginia policymakers’ insistence on keeping the state reliant on coal while dismissing renewables and energy efficiency programs is driving electric rates higher, writes an environmentalist. (West Virginia Watch)
By gradually nudging aside its diesel buses, Charlottesville’s transit agency is punching above its weight.
The city of 45,000 at the edge of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains is matching the likes of larger counterparts in New York, Chicago and San Diego with a carbon-curbing proposal to convert to a zero-emission public transit fleet by 2040. By then, its routes will be served by electric buses.
Granted, some environmental advocacy organizations urged a speedier transition and are disappointed the city won’t retire its last diesel bus until 2039.
However, groups aligned with the Community Climate Collaborative (C3) — which emphasizes social justice in its work to reduce emissions — are relieved the city was willing to address route and ridership issues in addition to a commitment to wean itself off diesel and avoid compressed natural gas as a power source altogether.
“I think this is a victory,” said Caetano de Campos Lopes, C3’s director of climate policy. “We are very pleased that the city’s approach was so thorough and holistic.”
As it stands now, Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) plans to double the size of its fleet from 38 to 76 by 2034. That peak fleet will be a blend of diesel and electric buses.
CAT is on track to roll out a pair of pilot programs to add at least two battery electric buses and then at least two hydrogen-electric fuel cell models by 2029. The transit agency will stop ordering diesel buses in 2027, meaning the last ones will come into service by 2028 or 2029.
While CAT is owned and operated by the city, the University of Virginia and Albemarle County contribute a small amount of its non-capital budget.
De Campos Lopes was reassured in late February when the Charlottesville City Council voiced unanimous support for advancing zero-emission fuel choices, because compressed natural gas was still under consideration the previous year. At its June 17 meeting, the council is scheduled to take a final vote on CAT’s Transit Strategic Plan.
C3 had collaborated with several dozen private companies and environmental, social justice and faith groups to pressure the council to adopt a measure in favor of zero-emission buses, particularly battery electric. It submitted a petition with 640-plus signatures last autumn.
Ben Chambers started his position as the city’s transportation planning manager in November 2022, when the community was in the thick of a back-and-forth exercise about its fleet makeup. The University of Virginia graduate is no stranger to the region or its routes, as he drove a University Transit Service bus while earning a religious studies undergraduate degree in 2006.
Over the last several years, he said, his most difficult task had been explaining to the public that CAT can’t turn on a dime to purchase zero-emission buses and upgrade their accompanying charging and fueling infrastructure.
He praised the council for conducting its deliberations openly so the public could better understand the process.
“For a long time, the constant refrain in the community has been ‘Get cleaner buses,’” Chambers said. “We’ve come to a solution that may not please everybody, but at least people understand how it’s going to work. We’re in a much better place now.”
C3, which released a transit equity and climate report in 2021, prodded the city to think beyond financial considerations when it found out that same year that CAT was on the verge of studying how to fuel its future buses.
The nonprofit and its allies feared the city would lean toward a known entity, compressed natural gas, and shy away from less time-tested technologies such as battery electric and hydrogen fuel cells.
That choice, de Campos Lopes said, wouldn’t align with the city’s ambitious target set in 2019 to curb greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. The transportation sector is a leading source, with an estimated 30% of total emissions.
Indeed, a recent analysis for CAT by the Northern Virginia-based Kimley-Horn engineering firm revealed that running CNG buses would amount to only a slight drop in emissions when compared to diesel.
In contrast, that same Kimley-Horn report stated that switching to battery electric buses or fuel cell buses powered with green hydrogen would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 99.4% and 99%, respectively, compared to the baseline diesel fleet.
Both technologies come close to achieving carbon neutrality, assuming the Virginia Clean Economy Act is heeded. Dominion Energy is supposed to achieve a carbon-free electric grid by 2045, with Appalachian Power following suit by 2050.
Both types of buses use batteries to power their electric motors. Fuel cell models use hydrogen to charge a battery, while the other uses electricity from the grid.
Initially, CAT had eyed compressed natural gas as one option because it’s cleaner than diesel and the gas buses didn’t cost that much more, Chambers said. Plus, both Richmond and Williamsburg had demonstrated success with gas buses, which qualified for funding under the federal government’s low- and no-emissions grant program.
“That CNG option caused a lot of mistrust,” he continued. “People thought CAT was trying to get around their request for clean energy buses. We dropped CNG mostly because of the feedback we got from the environmental community.”
In addition, some green groups said the transit agency was acting in bad faith by keeping diesel as part of its fuel mix.
The timing for looking beyond all fossil fuels was right, Chambers said, when usage data about electric buses was becoming available from other transit agencies and funding opportunities became abundant.
“We could finally have that conversation about electric buses, but we weren’t just responding to what the mob wants us to do,” he said. “We want to balance the hue and cry for alternative fuel with the need for reliable bus service.”
The transit agency is in the midst of devising a zero emission transition plan to submit to the Federal Transit Administration this fall, Chambers said. The document includes details such as a turnover timeline and specifics about bus storage and storage infrastructure.
On the pilot program front, the city is set to order as many as five battery electric buses this summer — each one roughly twice the cost of a $500,000 diesel model — that are scheduled to join the fleet in 2027. CAT will wrestle with details such as driving range, maintenance requirements, and whether it makes sense to install on-site solar to charge the buses.
“I have serious concerns about longer routes and the impact of terrain because we’re quite a hilly town,” he said. “We’re talking about big heavy machines and the details can get technical.”
Bringing up to five hydrogen-powered buses on board by 2029 — at between $1.2 million and $1.3 million each — will be trickier. Most pressing is finding a nearby source of hydrogen fuel that doesn’t contribute to emissions of heat-trapping gases.
“We’re investigating the idea of on-site generation,” Chambers said. “But if we need to truck it in, where would it come from?”
CAT won’t necessarily choose one technology over the other as it replaces its diesel models, he said, adding that having both choices available provides an added benefit of resiliency.
Money for the pilot programs is a mix of federal, state and local dollars, with the bulk of it from the federal government. The exact funding formula is still in the works, he said.
“Lucky for us, we won’t be the first out of the blocks,” Chambers said about gaining insights from transit agencies “on the bleeding edge to learn about the headaches they had to deal with.”
For instance, neighboring Blacksburg has put battery electric buses on the road, and leaders in Oakland, California; the Champaign-Urbana region of Illinois; and Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C.; have experience with hydrogen fuel cell buses.
He admitted that Charlottesville was a bit leery about delving into alternative technologies because of continued hassles with the 10 hybrid diesel buses it purchased about 15 years ago. Some of those models are still in the fleet. Parts of the hybrid drivetrain failed regularly and replacement parts were often on back order. As well, CAT had problems fully charging battery packs that didn’t last as long as promised.
“CAT couldn’t keep them on routes,” he said. “We didn’t want to end up with that same scenario.”
Susan Kruse, C3’s executive director, said she recognized that some groups focused solely on climate issues were frustrated by the city’s plans to boost greenhouse gas emissions in the short term by not pivoting away from diesel immediately.
Her group tried to play the role of mediator because “it was best to take the time to get everyone literally and figuratively aboard the bus,” she said.
“Sure, we would rather see buses move to zero emissions faster. But this is a great example of how moving toward a carbon-neutral community is difficult. This issue is complicated and we have to take the time to get it right.”
Generally, diesel buses cycle out of use after 12 years of service or accumulating 500,000 miles on the odometer.
It’s vital that CAT’s strategic plan calls for addressing shortcomings that frustrated riders, Kruse said. CAT will be doubling the amount of service, adding routes on nights and weekends, and limiting wait times between buses to 30 minutes.
She and her colleagues are especially pleased by the local environmental impact of battery electric and fuel cell buses powered by green or “gray” hydrogen produced using natural gas. A transition would improve air quality and reduce noise levels, according to the Kimley-Horn report.
For instance, the changeover would eliminate emissions of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds, all gases that are harmful to humans. For example, nitrogen oxides can irritate airways, aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases, and lead to emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
As well, cleaner buses would reduce the tiniest bits of particulate matter by 25% when compared to diesel. The microscopic particles endanger human health because they can deeply embed in lungs and also enter the bloodstream. Regardless of bus technology, particulate matter is still produced by wear and tear on a vehicle’s brake pads and tires.
C3 advocates and Chambers agree that Charlottesville’s achievements can be a model for smaller municipalities shifting to carbon-free buses. After all, the timeline for its proposed transition is ahead of Denver and Washington, D.C.
Setting an example doesn’t just apply to public transit, Chambers said, emphasizing that other communities view the university city as a test bed for plucky endeavors.
“In Charlottesville, we tend to think a bit bigger than our britches when it comes to policy decisions,” he said. “We do new bold things because we like to see if we can get it done.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration announces nearly $900 million for 500 school districts across the country to buy clean buses, most of them electric, in the latest round of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. (Canary Media)
ALSO: Electric vehicle charging companies see opportunity in Tesla’s Supercharger team layoffs, including by hiring former Tesla employees and building charging stations in lots whose owners previously planned to allow Superchargers. (E&E News)
SOLAR:
POLITICS: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Petroleum Institute, which opposed the Inflation Reduction Act before its passage, are now preparing to defend it if former President Trump wins the election this fall. (Politico)
WIND:
ELECTRIFICATION: Helping lower-income Americans electrify their homes could dramatically reduce fossil fuel use and drive $2 trillion in avoided health and social costs by 2050, an energy efficiency group finds. (Canary Media)
CLIMATE: The average person on Earth faced 26 more days of abnormal heat last year than they would’ve without human-caused climate change, a study finds. (New York Times)
GRID:
OIL & GAS: ConocoPhillips announces it will acquire Marathon Oil in an all-stock transaction worth $22.5 billion. (news release)
GEOTHERMAL: Utah’s geothermal industry says the federal Bureau of Land Management’s decision to defer 177,000 acres of energy leases until next year could imperil investments and development. (Deseret News)
CARBON CAPTURE: Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker says he will sign legislation that bans carbon pipelines until federal regulators adopt new safety regulations and that create more extensive monitoring at storage sites. (Capitol News Illinois)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: China’s plans to scale up production and dominate the electric vehicle market threatens Michigan’s marquee industry and poses an economic and national security threat to the U.S., experts say. (Bridge)
ALSO:
SOLAR: At least 27 Ohio counties have passed resolutions to block utility-scale solar projects as part of a state law that the state chamber of commerce says has “chased away investment in this state.” (WCMH)
PIPELINES:
GRID: Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin are among 21 states to join a Biden administration initiative that will provide financial and technical assistance to expand grid capacity and modernize existing transmission and distribution lines. (States Newsroom)
CLEAN ENERGY: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer says $367 million in federal clean energy funding will help 28,000 low-income households with energy efficiency and solar upgrades. (Michigan Advance)
OIL & GAS: The National Transportation Safety Board is now investigating a deadly natural gas explosion that killed one person and injured seven others in downtown Youngstown, Ohio. (ABC News)
COAL: Alliant Energy plans to convert a coal plant in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, to run on natural gas in 2028. (WPR)
NUCLEAR: An Ohio nuclear plant closed for two days late last week so inspectors could find and repair a coolant leak before bringing the plant back online. (Cleveland.com)
COMMENTARY:
.svg)
