Supes want big cut in emissions from vehicles
San Francisco officials want to shrink the city’s carbon footprint by eliminating the greenhouse gases belched from cars, trucks and other vehicles by 2040.
The city will take the first step toward that goal Tuesday, when Mayor London Breed and Supervisors Vallie Brown and Aaron Peskin are expected to introduce legislation to install more electricvehicle charging stations in both public and private parking lots and garages.
Exhaust from cars, trucks and other vehicles represents 46% of all emissions in San Francisco, making transportation the biggest contributor to the city’s carbon footprint.
About 44% of emissions come equally from the fuel burned to power and heat commercial and residential buildings, according to the city’s Department of the Environment. City officials have also introduced legislation that would require large commercial property owners to switch their buildings to 100% renewable energy by 2030. That ordinance is waiting for a hearing before the city’s Land Use Committee.
Leaders in San Francisco and across the state are looking to boost the adoption of electric vehicles — and the charging infrastructure needed to encourage drivers to make the switch. In 2018, thenGov. Jerry Brown signed an executive order calling for 5 million new zeroemission vehicles on California’s roads by 2030 and 250,000 charging stations by 2025.
“To meet our climate goals and improve the air we breathe, we need to electrify public and private transportation,” Breed said in a statement. “We know that one of the biggest barriers for people considering driving an electric vehicle is access to charging, so we want to make sure our city has the charging infrastructure that’s needed.”
San Francisco’s pending legislation, which city officials believe to be the first of its kind in the country, would require private parking lots and garages with more than 100 parking spots to install electricvehicle charging stations next to at least 10% of the spaces. The ordinance would apply to about 300 commercial parking facilities in the city whose owners would have until 2023 to install the new stations.
Commercial electricvehicle charging stations can cost thousands of dollars each. But most private lot and garage operators are expected to contract with chargingstation providers, so the charging ports don’t have to be bought outright.
The city is also looking to grow the stock of charging stations at up to 38 municipally operated lots and garages. Chargingstation providers are bidding on the chance to install up to 340 charging ports on city property. The city has installed 200 charging ports on city property since 2009.
Beyond installing more charging stations, the city will consider other proposals meant to nudge more people into electric vehicles, including making street and garage parking cheaper for electric cars, finding ways to make athome charging more affordable, and finding ways to shift heavier vehicles — like school buses and garbage trucks — to allelectric fleets.