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New Yorkers are all too familiar with the costs of air and climate pollution. As one of the busiest transit hubs in the world, our state sees over 2,000 premature deaths annually due to air pollution from vehicles alone. Meanwhile, these emissions also contribute to the climate crisis we increasingly experience in the form of torrential flooding, dystopic orange skies, and extreme storms.
Transportation is one of New York’s leading sources of carbon emissions. To truly lead the nation in the fight against climate change, we must start here. But this year, the Assembly missed a crucial opportunity to immediately slash tailpipe emissions and simultaneously accelerate the transition to electric vehicles (EVs) by failing to establish a Clean Fuel Standard (CFS) in New York.
We know that EVs and the deployment of related charging infrastructure will play a pivotal role in curbing transportation emissions and ensuring a healthier environment for future generations, offering a much cleaner and more sustainable alternative to traditional gasoline-powered cars that emit nearly 400g of CO2 per mile. That’s why New York has put forward ambitious electrification goals and measures, such as the phase-out of sales of fossil-powered vehicles, the Advanced Clean Truck Rule, efforts to fast-track charging station construction, and the transition to electric school buses.
But, even with these measures, under the scoping plan’s most aggressive electrification scenario, 50% of heavy-duty vehicles on the road in 2050 will still rely on a liquid fuel. New Yorkers cannot afford the decades it will take to fully transition our vehicle fleet to EVs to start breathing cleaner air. Moreover, the transition to electric will not happen overnight. The costs associated with the transition to electrification, including grid upgrades, vehicle adoption, and installation of high powered fast charging, come with a price tag that government incentives alone cannot feasibly cover. To fully transition to EVs, we need additional funding sources to meaningfully cut costs and make these vehicles and the charging networks that power them more affordable to the average New Yorker.
This is where a CFS comes in. Under a CFS, all transportation fuels produced in or imported to a state – including electricity – are assessed on a carbon intensity scale that measures the full life-cycle emissions of each fuel. Fuels more polluting than the standard (such as gasoline and diesel) generate deficits, while sources cleaner than the standard (such as biodiesel and electricity) generate credits. The pollution standard is reduced steadily each year, which creates a growing market for clean fuels. Credits from a CFS would help decrease the costs of building EV charging networks and can be especially helpful in managing the costs of fast charging infrastructure given their higher cost of deployment and installation.
For example, California – the first state to implement a CFS – directs a portion of CFS credit to entities that install EV charging infrastructure, either through fuel-based crediting or capacity credits, which helps bring down the cost of charging infrastructure they purchase and reinvest credits they receive into more charging infrastructure.
As a national leader in the fight against climate change, New York should be following in California’s footsteps to establish a CFS that will effectively create a market for cleaner liquid fuels to power the combustion engine cars and trucks already on our roads while reducing the cost barriers standing in the way of widespread EV adoption. But unfortunately, this year, the Assembly ultimately failed to pass legislation that would have established a CFS (Woerner A964A) despite its Senate counterpart (Parker S1292A) passing with overwhelming support.
The more we delay common-sense, low-cost solutions to immediately provide cleaner air, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and get more EVs on New York roads, the more challenging it will become for our sate to achieve the ambitious climate goals set forth by the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA) and ensure a cleaner, more sustainable future for all New Yorkers.
There is no time left to waste. The success we’ve seen in California is a testament to how a CFS can propel New York into a clean, electric future and bring costs down to ensure that anyone can purchase an EV and have access to charging, not just the wealthy – all while relying on the deep pockets of fossil fuel producers and other corporate polluters to foot the bill.
As we look ahead to 2025, we must prioritize establishing a CFS that will clean up the vehicles on our roads today and ensure that the ones on our roads tomorrow will have equitable access to charging infrastructure. The state might’ve missed the chance to act today, but there is still hope for tomorrow. Let’s make it happen.
Emily Kelly is a senior manager of public policy at ChargePoint, an electric vehicle charging infrastructure manufacturer.
Emily Kelly , 2024-06-19 18:03:03
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