Cuomo wants to clear air
Governor’s initiative seeks to reduce all carbon emissions
The oppressive heat Capital Region residents were told to expect this weekend might not be directly attributable to climate change.
But as carbon emissions continue to accumulate in the atmosphere, heat waves and severe weather have become more common.
The initiative Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced this past week in conjunction with 14 other states and the District of Columbia is his latest effort to address the issue.
“With a lack of federal leadership and an outright failure to follow science, it has fallen to the states to address the climate crisis by working together to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from all sources,” Cuomo said.
“Reducing pollution from mediumand heavy-duty vehicles will result in cleaner air for New Yorkers, particularly low-income neighborhoods and communities of color that have historically and disproportionately borne the brunt of the worst environmental consequences.”
A memorandum of understanding signed with the states and the District of Columbia would reduce toxic diesel emissions by having 30 percent of all buses and heavier trucks sold in 2030 be electric powered. That figure would increase to 100 percent by 2050.
How to achieve this?
The Public Service Commission seeks to make more than 50,000 charging stations available statewide within five years, with utilities and developers offered incentives to construct
these. The PSC caps the budget at $701 million with $206 million dedicated to lower-income communities.
Another $48.8 million would be spent to increase the use of electric school and transit buses and their charging stations. The money comes from the state’s Volkswagen Settlement Funding, paid by the auto maker after it circumvented emissions regulations.
In the Capital Region, the local transit authority has already introduced its first all-electric buses. The Capital District Transportation Authority has taken delivery of four electric buses under a pilot program to see how well they perform in all kinds of conditions, from extreme temperature conditions that would challenge the vehicle batteries’ capabilities to power to heat and cool the bus, to its ability to perform dependably in hilly terrain, where a steep incline might also tax the battery.
So far, the buses have performed well, said Carm Basile, CDTA’S CEO.
“We’ve been moving them around the system,” he said Friday. “The pilot has gone very well.”
The buses, at about $900,000 each, are more expensive than the traditional diesel buses, which cost about $500,000 apiece. But savings on fuel costs over the bus’s dozenyear life span can nearly eliminate the gap. Add in the savings on maintenance — the diesel engine has far more moving parts than the electric motor — and the gap narrows further.
While Basile said the electric buses have had “just a handful” of issues, they were not unexpected, given the new technology.
The real issue would be keeping the vehicles charged.
Lion Electric, a Quebec company that opened a sales office last year in Green Island, sells medium-duty trucks and school buses, all electricpowered. The school buses operate in the morning and in the afternoon. The idle time in between can be used to recharge the batteries, Lion officials said during opening ceremonies.
Lion Electric couldn’t be reached for additional comment, so it’s not clear how many electric vehicles their Green Island office has sold since the opening.
Meanwhile, CDTA has been satisfied with its buses, built by New Flyer.
“There’s been no significant degradation in the life of the charge in the weather conditions or geography,” Basile said. “They have been quite reliable.”
Passengers also seem to like the buses.
“There’s a feel-good component” to riding in a bus that’s not polluting, said Allison Schreffler, a CDTA spokeswoman.
“The bus operators really enjoy driving the vehicle,” added Basile. Buses are responsive, with smooth acceleration. And they’re quiet.
As battery technology improves, costs come down and more charging stations, powered increasingly by renewable energy, come on line, officials hope electric vehicles will gain enough market share to make a dent in greenhouse gas emissions.
The 14 states participating with New York are California, Connecticut, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
eanderson@timesunion. com