The crux of the initiative involves encouraging cities, counties and utilities along the West Coast to adopt ZEVs in their fleets. Launched through the Pacific Coast Collaborative, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, and the premier of British Columbia, Christy Clark, pledged to provide resources and offer incentives that would put more ZEVs on the road.
The “core of it is really a peer network,” Mark Wenzel, climate change advisor with the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) told the Sacramento Bee. “There’s access to a wide range of resources, an online toolkit, webinars and access to other fleet managers. And it’s not just commercial fleets, it’s cars in the public and private sector[s]. And yes, there is a little publicity for sustainability.”
As part of the initiative, California will invest $7.5 million in purchase incentives to reach Brown’s goal of 1.5 million ZEVs on California’s roads by 2025. CalEPA reported the state will meet its goal given the current adoption trend and requirement set by Brown through an executive order in 2012 that at least 10 percent of all light-duty vehicles be zero-emission by 2015 and 25 percent by 2020.
