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NY Electric Vehicle Advocates Applaud Biden's Latest Executive Order

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Advocates for electric vehicles here in New York are supporting the Biden administration’s policy announcement intended to speed-up a transition away from gas-burning cars and trucks. Some people have been working on making electric and hybrid cars more acceptable for years.

“It’s huge. It’s the biggest change, and I’ve been doing this for over 20 years,” said Executive Director of Clean Communities of CNY Barry Carr. Clean Communities CNY is a Department of Energy initiate to advance environmental and energy issues.

“A lot of it isn’t just more efficient vehicles. A lot of it is the level of interest is due to climate change.”

President Biden announced new regulations that mandate higher fuel efficiency for vehicles and require that half of all vehicles sold by 2030 would be hybrid or fully electric. Carr believes this will greatly increase public acceptance, partly because automakers will be able to bring down prices.

“So the typical EV has maybe one third of the parts that an internal combustion car has in it, and it’s inefficient to manufacture 5,000 cars a year. But it’s very efficient to manufacture 50,000,” said Carr.

Besides an increase in electric vehicles, the administration wants to add 500,000 new charging stations. And Carr can see further progress following New York State practices.

“They are starting to require EV infrastructure in the building code. So if you’re building a commercial office building or a residential house, you have to put in circuit breaker and power requirements to add EV chargers,” said Carr.

Such policies – and agreement by auto makers – will help the transition to EVs, which the administration and environmentalist say is necessary to scale back global warming emissions.

What’s included in President Biden’s Executive Order on Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks?

  • Setting a goal that 50% of all new passenger cars and light trucks sold in 2030 be zero-emission vehicles.
  • EPA will create new multi-pollutant emissions standards for light-and medium-duty vehicles beginning in 2027 and extending through hat least 2030.
  • Secretary of Transportation will create new fuel economy standards for passenger cars and light duty trucks beginning in 2027 and extending through hat least 2030.
  • New fuel economy standards and emissions standards will also be established for other classes of vehicle.
Chris Bolt, Ed.D. has proudly been covering the Central New York community and mentoring students for more than 30 years. His career in public media started as a student volunteer, then as a reporter/producer. He has been the news director for WAER since 1995. Dedicated to keeping local news coverage alive, Chris also has a passion for education, having trained, mentored and provided a platform for growth to more than a thousand students. Career highlights include having work appear on NPR, CBS, ABC and other news networks, winning numerous local and state journalism awards.