Amid shifting national priorities on environmental issues, one thing remains certain: addressing climate change and air quality in California will require bold leadership in every sector — especially transportation.
In California, transportation — including the refining of fuel — is responsible for about 50 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and more than 80 percent of its air pollution.
Not surprisingly, communities along transportation corridors suffer most from a combination of economic, health and environmental burdens related to these pollutants.
That being said, we’ve been watching some recent developments in public transportation that are very encouraging.
Last week, the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) board approved the purchase of 95 electric buses and is now studying the feasibility of converting its fleet of 2,248 to zero-emission buses by 2030.
Antelope Valley Transit Authority, which serves Lancaster, Palmdale and parts of northern Los Angeles County, has even more ambitious plans to convert its entire fleet of 75 buses to all electric by next year.
Foothill Transit, another L.A.-area transit agency and the first in the U.S. to bring a fast-charge, electric bus into service, has boldly made the commitment to go all electric by 2030. Of the 361 buses it operates in the San Gabriel and Pomona valleys, 17 are zero-emission electric with more on order.
The electric buses in Foothill Transit’s fleet are manufactured by Proterra, a Burlingame-based company that last month celebrated the opening of a 100,000-square-foot electric bus manufacturing plant in the City of Industry.
Proterra, which has sold more than 400 zero-emission buses to transit operators in 40 communities across the U.S., says the new facility, its second, will start turning out one new electric bus a week and will scale up to meet demand.
In anticipation of this transformation, Southern California Edison (whose parent company, Edison International, holds a small minority interest in Proterra) has proposed a wide-ranging plan for expanding electric transportation in Southern California, including public transportation. The plan aims to increase electrification of buses, as well as medium- and heavy-duty trucks and industrial vehicles and equipment.
We firmly believe this and similar infrastructure programs are important for the state because electrification of the transportation sector is critical to California’s goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and reducing hazardous air pollution.
That is why SCE also supports the increased adoption of electric cars both at home and in the workplace through incentive and infrastructure programs like our Charge Ready EV charging infrastructure pilot and our Clean Fuel Rewards program, which offers a $450 rebate to electric vehicle owners in our service area.
When it comes to the current state of climate change and clean-air discussions, the stakes are high and so are the challenges. It’s clear that we have to listen to each other and work together at all levels of society — government, private sector and communities.
It is the actions we all take now that will ensure we have a future with cleaner air.
Ron Nichols is president of Southern California Edison.
