Push the Pedal on Transportation Electrification

Foothill Transit "Ecoliner" electric bus in Pomona, CA
Foothill Transit "Ecoliner" electric bus in Pomona, California.

The Sierra Club's My Generation campaign is working to move California to a 100 percent clean electric economy. Transitioning our transportation sector away from fossil fuels to clean, electric engines is a vital piece to reaching that destination. Southern California happens to be well positioned to accelerate the Golden State away from a fossil fuel-powered transportation sector toward a fully electric one. And the region, led in large part by Los Angeles, seems to be seizing on the opportunity.

L.A. has the highest adoption rate for electric cars of any city in the country, and last year Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a new purchase of 199 EV’s that gave us the largest fully battery-powered municipal fleet as well. The DASH system has already begun shifting to electric in response to a City Council motion put forward by Mike Bonin and Jose Huizar, and last month Mayor Garcetti launched the BlueLA Electric Car Sharing Program, specifically destined to bring low cost EV transportation to struggling neighborhoods. Now, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LA Metro) is on the verge of committing to an all-electric bus fleet by 2030.

The progress being made may make it look like we’re on a smooth path to total electrification, but a major obstacle to a clean transportation system locally and statewide is the polluting natural gas industry. The conflict is playing out vividly in debates before LA Metro’s Board and committees leading up to the Board meeting on July 27th, where a resolution for bus electrification will be voted on.

After the LA Metro staff presented a plan last month to completely electrify its bus system by 2030, a spokesman from the gas fuel supply company Clean Energy Fuels was one of only two people raising objections, warning that electric buses, which are already only marginally more expensive than the CNG buses, may not come down in price. Other gas industry representatives have made dire predictions about reliability issues and battery failure.  The gas industry has also falsely claimed that electric buses will use electricity derived from coal-fired power, ignoring the fact that L.A. will be entirely coal-free by 2025, when major deployment of electric buses will just be beginning.

The argument around the cost of electric buses made by the industry is equally flimsy. Clean Technica reports on the Ward’s Auto study, dated February 7, which says EV battery prices are falling faster than expected and could be lower than the magic $100-per-kilowatt-hour mark by 2020. Electric buses are far cheaper to maintain, and fueling them with electrons is far cheaper than doing so with fracked gas. In addition, support for electrification from Jobs to Move America, IBEW Local 11, and SMART, the sheet metal workers union, underscores the enormous economic benefits to our region that electric buses (and other heavy-duty vehicles like big rigs) will bring. In fact, in a recent news story, KCRW called L.A. "the Detroit of electric buses."

The gas industry doesn’t want this to happen, and is desperately fighting to retain a very lucrative contract in the face of steep declines in their business. In Los Angeles, the industry lost the income from the Aliso Canyon storage facility nearly two years ago, and local residents are mounting a vigorous campaign to close down a similar facility in Playa del Rey. Across the state, clean energy like rooftop solar and energy efficiency is driving down demand for gas and making it harder for planners and regulators to justify new gas plants. As reported by Energy & Environment News, gas is on the ropes in the electricity generation market. (More on that in a subsequent blog.)

The fact of the matter is, we can’t stay tied to the past when clean technology solutions are available and cost effective. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, life cycle emissions from battery electric buses are nearly 75 percent lower than both Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and diesel buses. After Los Angeles ceases using electricity produced from burning coal in 2025, electrification should drop L.A.'s bus fleet’s global-warming and smog-forming emissions by more than 80 percent compared to CNG emissions.

The My Generation campaign and its partners are pushing for LA Metro to make the right decision on July 27 so that another domino will fall and California will take another big step toward a clean, sustainable future. Let’s do all we can to help them make the right choice. 


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