electric vehicles – Enviro Updates

Op-Ed: Sonoma County leads on climate policy

December 22, 2024

John Burns, PRESS DEMOCRAT

As world leaders convened at the annual U.N. climate conference in November, scientists reported that carbon dioxide levels in the earth’s atmosphere had reached another record — 423 parts per million, more than 50% higher than preindustrial levels.

As a result, 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded and 2024 in on track to be even hotter. The cause: Humanity’s unabated burning of coal, oil and natural gas has unleashed massive amounts of CO2.

The result is more frequent and intense wildfires, prolonged droughts, hotter heat waves, increasingly destructive hurricanes, deadlier floods, ocean acidification, sea level rise, species extinctions and collapsing fisheries.
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John Burns

According to climate scientists, unless immediate action is taken to rapidly phase out fossil fuels in favor of clean, renewable energy, our worsening climate poses grave threats to human civilization in the decades ahead.

But such critical action is not happening fast enough. Despite Congress having adopted historic climate legislation two years ago, global energy demand is growing faster than clean energy is expanding.

If only the world was following Sonoma County’s lead.

Climate Change & Energyelectric vehicles, emissions reduction, renewable energy

US residential heat pump sales pass gas furnaces for first time as interest in efficiency tech surges

June 7, 2023

Robert Walton, UTILITY DIVE

Global energy demand rose 1% in 2022 but the rate of energy efficiency improvements was double the average of the past five years boosted by “surging” sales in more efficient technologies like heat pumps and electric vehicles, the International Energy Agency said in a report Wednesday.
In the United States last year, residential heat pump sales exceeded gas furnaces for the first time, making up 53% of heating system sales.
Sales of electric vehicles grew 55% last year in the United States, and in the first quarter of this year made up more than 7% of new car sales. Globally, EVs made up 14% of new car sales in 2022 and could reach 18% this year, IEA said.

Climate Change & Energyelectric vehicles, heat pumps

Santa Rosa acquires new electric transit buses, readying first two for service in late 2022

September 29, 2022

Alana Minkler & Colin Atagi, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Two electric buses arrived in Santa Rosa on Wednesday morning and two more are on the way as the city is poised to put them into service later this year — the start of a bigger shift to eliminate carbon emissions tied to the CityBus fleet.

The switch to electrical buses is part of the city’s initiative to make public transportation fully zero-emission by 2030 and drastically lower carbon emissions in the transportation sector, which accounts for 60% of climate warming gases in the county.

The city’s all-electric buses, which cost $1.2 million each, join three currently in the county fleet, and are part of the broader plan by transit and fleet managers eyeing a transition away from fossil fuel vehicles over the coming years.

Sonoma County Transit introduced its first electric bus in 2018 and plans to add three more by the end of this year, with up to 19 in service by mid-2024, said Sonoma County Transit Systems Manager Bryan Albee said.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationelectric vehicles, ghg emissions, ghg reduction, public transit

Santa Rosa, largest US city to ban new gas stations

August 25, 2022

Paulina Pineda, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Santa Rosa became the largest city in the nation to ban new gas stations on Tuesday, joining other cities in Sonoma County that have led a coordinated effort to combat climate impacts of fossil fuel.

In the latest volley of a locally grown movement that supporters hope will catch on across the nation, the City Council voted 6-0 to ban construction of gas stations and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure at existing gas stations within city limits.

The new rules will not close gas stations though it will put some limits on current operators.

Santa Rosa has 44 operating gas stations and there are two proposed stations under review at Rincon Road and North Wright Road. Gas stations that submit completed applications before the ban goes into effect in October will be considered by staff.

With Tuesday’s vote, more than half of Sonoma County residents will live in a jurisdiction that has banned gas stations. Supporters point to elected officials in Los Angeles and mid-state New York who are looking at similar ordinances.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationelectric vehicles, fossil fuel infrastructure, gas station ban

Is Norway the future of cars?

January 11, 2022

Shira Ovide, NEW YORK TIMES

Last year, Norway reached a milestone. Only about 8 percent of new cars sold in the country ran purely on conventional gasoline or diesel fuel. Two-thirds of new cars sold were electric, and most of the rest were electric-and-gasoline hybrids.

For years, Norway has been the world leader in shifting away from traditional cars, thanks to government benefits that made electric vehicles far more affordable and offered extras like letting electric car owners skip some fees for parking and toll roads.

Still, electric car enthusiasts are stunned by the speed at which the internal combustion engine has become an endangered species in Norway.

“It has surprised most people how quickly things have changed,” Christina Bu, the secretary general of the Norwegian EV Association, told me. In 2015, electric cars were about 20 percent of new car sales, and now they are “the new normal,” Bu said. (Her organization is like AAA for electric vehicle drivers.)

Americans might view Norwegians as environmental die-hards who were eager to ditch gas cars. But Bu and other transportation experts told me that Norwegians started with much of the same electric vehicle skepticism as Americans.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationelectric vehicles

The climate bill inside the infrastructure bill

November 8, 2021

Dan Farber, LEGAL PLANET

The US takes a major step forward on the path to carbon neutrality.

Late Friday, the House passed Biden’s infrastructure bill, the Build Back Better law. As the Washington Post aptly observed, the bill is the biggest climate legislation to ever move through Congress. It also attracted key support from some Republicans, which was essential to passing it in both houses of Congress. Biden is pushing for an even bigger companion bill, but the infrastructure bill is a huge victory in its own right.

One major area of spending is transportation. Some of that goes for roads and bridges. But as the Washington Post reports, there’s a lot of money for rail and mass transit:

“Another $66 billion will go to passenger and freight rail, including enough money to eliminate Amtrak’s maintenance backlog. Yet another $39 billion will modernize public transit, and $11 billion more will be set aside for transportation safety, including programs to reduce fatalities among pedestrians and cyclists.”

There’s also $7.5 billion in funding for zero and low-emission buses and ferries. There’s another $7.5 billion to build out charging capacity for electric vehicles, and $6 billion for energy storage.

The law also addresses a big bottleneck in the energy system: lack of adequate long-distance transmission capacity. We will need much more robust transmission to achieve a carbon neutral grid. For instance, Iowa can generate more wind power than it can get to markets in Chicago and further east. Transmission also helps to deal with weather issues: even if it’s too cloudy for solar in one state, the sun may be shining a state or two over. The effort to build new transmission has been stymied, however, by resistance from utilities and state governments.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationelectric vehicles, energy transmission, EV charging stations, power grid, safe streets

Sonoma County startup Solectrac builds electric tractors for vineyard managers, hobbyists

March 30, 2021

Susan Wood, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Steve Heckeroth is a natural for running a novel electric tractor business — which is believed to have environmentally created a line in the “soil” to get generations of farmers to know the dirt on noisy, unhealthy diesel engines.

The 72-year-old businessman, who moved his Solectrac operation from Mendocino County to Santa Rosa near the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport a few weeks ago, has dedicated his life to finding alternatives to burning fossil fuels.

Through the years, he has dug deep into his imagination and will to reduce humankind’s carbon footprint by coming up with farm equipment that’s designed to heal the Earth and help the land’s stewards — known in industry circles as the ultimate environmentalists — operate more efficiently and with their own health in mind.

Climate Change & Energy, Transportationbatteries, electric vehicles