Energy Revolution: California Approves $768 Million for Electric Vehicles

Megalith

Megalith

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California’s electric utility companies have been given the go-ahead to spend nearly $768 million on charging infrastructure for electric cars, trucks, and buses. This represents the largest state-level effort yet by the utility industry to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles.

Transportation accounts for about 40 percent of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, and state officials see electrifying heavy-duty vehicles as a way to fight both global warming and air pollution in one step, since regulators also expect much of the electricity to be generated by clean sources like solar power.
 
Great, but CA needs transit.

Electric cars won't ease the greater whole of the problem much at all, especially in LA.
 
it wasn't meant to ease any other problem except the reliance on the gas.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Great, but CA needs transit.

Electric cars won't ease the greater whole of the problem much at all, especially in LA.
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I see this happening in WA all the time, too. Some expenditure will happen towards benefiting those that own modern private automobiles being more green, but in the meantime they shut down another four bus stops, and leverage another gas tax hike while still the surface roads in most areas suffer. Focus on new infrastructure without maintaining the existing one seems to be a rule in society, and our only solution appears to be make a new iCar, or betray the taxpayer by raising prices again on car tabs (mandatory for your right of "free travel"). They are GREAT at putting up "Your tax dollars at work" signage on the roadsides, for future projects they haven't budgeted for yet, though! And traffic is so bad, it provides free reading material for all to pass the time. So much safer than "Chinese fire drills" from my teen years -- thank you government!
 
Live in socal, we used a previous credit to get a Ford plug-in hybrid. Honestly it's great, wife can commute without gas, meaning less frequent oil changes, radiator flush, maybe even transmission etc.

Honestly, anything is better, I life a few miles from a 10,000 ft mountain and sometimes I cannot see it due to the smog--but I agree with TK: "Great, but CA needs transit." Gov't needs to get hands-on with rich stalwarts who are stubbornly impeding on the expansion of mass transportation.
 
Uvaman2 said:
6.1b surplus? I thought California was broke
?
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California is broke, they are just in denial.

They claim a surplus, but ignore all the unfunded liabilities such as under funded pensions that are bankrupting local governments and school districts.

Basically, it's like looking at you bank balance, and think you are doing good because you have more in the bank than last year, while ignoring that you doubled your credit card debt.
 
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Disco_Stu_04 said:
Live in socal, we used a previous credit to get a Ford plug-in hybrid. Honestly it's great, wife can commute without gas, meaning less frequent oil changes, radiator flush, maybe even transmission etc.

Honestly, anything is better, I life a few miles from a 10,000 ft mountain and sometimes I cannot see it due to the smog--but I agree with TK: "Great, but CA needs transit." Gov't needs to get hands-on with rich stalwarts who are stubbornly impeding on the expansion of mass transportation.
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I live in Southern California too, but mass transit is not the solution. We have spent billions on mass transit, yet less people use it than 20 years ago.
Mass transit is something that most people want others to use, but won't use themselves.

As for the smog, I've lived here for over 50 years, and it was much worse 30 years ago. We had a good view of a mountain at the end of the street I grew up on, and most of the year we would never see it. Only after a couples days of rain would it be clear enough. My brother now lives in the same house, and most days you can see the mountain. Huge difference.
Number of smog alerts they call now days is a fraction of the days when I was growing up.
 
Uvaman2 said:
6.1b surplus? I thought California was broke
?
Click to expand...
CA has a rainy day fund in it with Billions of Dollars in it, the budget is required to be balanced by June 15th or Legislators get no pay until a budget is passed and signed by the Governor, this was voted in by the Voters in 2010, I voted for this, it's called Prop25...
It also made the budget a 50%+1 vote, instead of a 2/3rds vote and hostage holding by the CAGOP to extract budget cuts from the Majority Democrats.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/no-budget-no-pay-works-on_b_5501540.html
https://ballotpedia.org/California_...ote_for_Legislature_to_Pass_the_Budget_(2010)
 
nutzo said:
California is broke, they are just in denial.

They claim a surplus, but ignore all the unfunded liabilities such as under funded pensions that are bankrupting local governments and school districts.

Basically, it's like looking at you bank balance, and think you are doing good because you have more in the bank than last year, while ignoring that you doubled your credit card debt.
Click to expand...
BS, CA has a budget surplus and has had one since about 2010, look at My last post and go read the links.
 
Twisted Kidney said:
Great, but CA needs transit.

Electric cars won't ease the greater whole of the problem much at all, especially in LA.
Click to expand...
CA needs both, population of 39.5 million in 2017, being a state with lots of mountains, about 770 miles long by about 250 miles wide... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California
I found all I need is a 60Amp 240v breaker, a 48Amp charger(level 2 @ 240v is AC, Level 3 is DC @ 480v), some #6 cable, a weather proof outlet and box(or direct wired if the charger supports this), and the $150.00 to hire an electrician to do the work and My place would be ready for a Chevy Bolt, or a Tesla Model 3, or a Hyundai Kona EV, or a 2019 Nissan Leaf w/a liquid cooled battery made by LG Chem, LG Chem makes the Bolts battery for Chevy. Oh and up the road is 8-20 Tesla Superchargers at Eddie World next to the i15 fwy in Yermo CA, I'm seeing more and more Teslas on the fwy and at Eddie World these days.
 
JokerCPoC said:
CA has a rainy day fund in it with Billions of Dollars in it, the budget is required to be balanced by June 15th or Legislators get no pay until a budget is passed and signed by the Governor, this was voted in by the Voters in 2010, I voted for this, it's called Prop25...
It also made the budget a 50%+1 vote, instead of a 2/3rds vote and hostage holding by the CAGOP to extract budget cuts from the Majority Democrats.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/chris-weigant/no-budget-no-pay-works-on_b_5501540.html
https://ballotpedia.org/California_...ote_for_Legislature_to_Pass_the_Budget_(2010)
Click to expand...
Impressive, had no idea... Heard so much the California is broke meme, it just stayed in my mind. I realize now i haven't heard it in a while.
 
JokerCPoC said:
BS, CA has a budget surplus and has had one since about 2010, look at My last post and go read the links.
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And I have a budget surplus this year because I have a few thousand more in the bank.
I'll simply ignore the $50,000 I charged on my credit cards, the $200,000 I took out of the house when I refinanced it, and the $25,000 I owe the IRS.
(I didn't really do this as I'm not as dumb as our politicians)

See how easy it is to have a surplus if you use government accounting standards :p


JokerCPoC said:
CA has a rainy day fund in it with Billions of Dollars in it, the budget is required to be balanced by June 15th or Legislators get no pay until a budget is passed and signed by the Governor, this was voted in by the Voters in 2010, I voted for this, it's called Prop25...
It also made the budget a 50%+1 vote, instead of a 2/3rds vote and hostage holding by the CAGOP to extract budget cuts from the Majority Democrats.
Click to expand...

So you were one of the people who voted to make it easier to pass these fake budgets. That explains a lot.

Instead of compromising with the opposition to actually balance the budget, they simply shuffle funds around, raise taxes, steal from local governments, underfund pension funds, and make overly optimistic assumptions about future revenues. This will not end well (see Venezuela for what happens when you spend money you don't have).

I'm sure my budget would be easy to balance if assume I'll win a million dollars in the lottery next year. :D

I've lived here all my life. I just hope it doesn't collapse before I can sell my over priced house in a few years, and retire to another state.

​
 
I side seat drove in California a few weeks ago. It was a weekday and the middle of the afternoon and the dam highways/freeways were packed.
I agree with others who said mass transit. It was insane.
 
Nice! Go Cali, stay ahead of the game, others will figure it out later and catch up at their own pace as usual.

Our neighborhood is starting to get populated with awesome EVs, lotsa Bolts and Model 3s. I think we saw about half a dozen of these just in our street so far. Exciting times!
 
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Hagrid said:
I side seat drove in California a few weeks ago. It was a weekday and the middle of the afternoon and the dam highways/freeways were packed.
I agree with others who said mass transit. It was insane.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking maybe we should look into city operated car sharing solutions instead of just bus service now, back then we didn't have fancy hightech cellphones so it wasn't as practical, but these days it's a no brainer, we ride Lyft and Uber everywhere even though we have our own vehicle, less hassle than finding and paying for parking.

I think some city is experimenting with that somewhere:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/arlington-texas-experiment-replaces-buses-with-via-partnership/
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/12/17109708/via-arlington-texas-rideshare-app-replaces-bus

I think it'd make more sense. Rather than driving a big bus that's often just empty, it would make it easier for those bus drivers to drive ridesharing vehicles instead, picking people up and dropping them off in a more rapid and surgical fashion.

An efficient ridesharing network would also make it easier for people to ditch their own cars, a bus is too inconvenient and unreliable in most places so only those who can't afford a car use it, which is not ideal, it should be a solution practical enough for more of the public.
 
nutzo said:
... mass transit is not the solution. We have spent billions on mass transit, yet less people use it than 20 years ago.
Mass transit is something that most people want others to use, but won't use themselves.
Click to expand...
Government-funded "mass transit" is designed like cattle transport, not people transport, and the politicians don't care how many people use it as long as they can keep issuing lucrative contracts to their friends in the construction trades and providing well-paid sinecures to the labor unions who support them.

Private companies like Waymo and the Boring Company, on the other hand, are seeking to build people transport systems they can make money off of. So they're trying to build systems people will want to use, because otherwise, they'll lose money. I myself am looking forward to Waymo starting unmanned taxi service in Phoenix this year: there's no driver to shoot and kill you in a Waymo vehicle. I might even drop back to one Prius (the bigger newer V) once it is deployed.

Government is almost always the worst possible way to solve a problem.
 
nutzo said:
California is broke, they are just in denial.

They claim a surplus, but ignore all the unfunded liabilities such as under funded pensions that are bankrupting local governments and school districts.

Basically, it's like looking at you bank balance, and think you are doing good because you have more in the bank than last year, while ignoring that you doubled your credit card debt.
Click to expand...

^^This. Well said.
 
Wierdo said:
Nice! Go Cali, stay ahead of the game, others will figure it out later and catch up at their own pace as usual.

Our neighborhood is starting to get populated with awesome EVs, lotsa Bolts and Model 3s. I think we saw about half a dozen of these just in our street so far. Exciting times!
Click to expand...

Not everyone shares California's blind Utopian views.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/19/cal...ousing-costs-and-taxes-are-fleeing-state.html

https://fee.org/articles/can-california-survive-a-middle-class-exodus/
 
As a CA EV owner, I'm just kinda meh about this news. Yes it's good we're worried about polution and getting past gas dependencey, but we could do the same with better mass transit. I take the train once or twice a week into LA or San Diego and enjoy it. Enjoy not having to worry about how bad the 5 or 405 is on that day, having to worry about the crazies I have to share to road with, or cops that need to write x amount of tickets that day.

But I guess other than clearing the air for those that live east of me, I don't think this will benefit me at all. More/better public transportation would be my vote also.
 
Premature spending. It's great they want to put in the infrastructure, but the technology behind high-powered charging stations and fast charging EV batteries is changing too quickly right now. Allocating room for charging services is still nascent, since most of it is going in on private land around 'convenience' areas (malls, small shopping areas, etc.) Something they *could* do (that I would like to see) is allocate 10% of 'downtown' style metered parking to 'red zone' electric-car-only parking, where an electric car can park and not pay metered fees if it is hooked up to a charging station and paying electric fees. They could also provide low-cost secured loans for charging stations in parking garages. This wouldn't cost as much, and would also encourage electric car sales.
 
Uvaman2 said:
Impressive, had no idea... Heard so much the California is broke meme, it just stayed in my mind. I realize now i haven't heard it in a while.
Click to expand...
Depends what you're talking about and how old the numbers you are using. Most of that came from the laws in California was trying to pass post 2008 crash. In terms of state/local debt is not terrible it's quite in the middle in terms of debt to revenue. When you're even talking that debt per capita it's still in the middle or better. But when you talk about privately owned debt there is a ton of it per capita in california. That could be in part just due to the higher pay and cost of living in general pushing that private debt up when in the backdrop of poorer states.

If you're talking about fiscally irresponsible states you're looking at kansas by far the worst after their tax cuts and un-tax cuts. Then you have south carolina, kentucky and new york all notably poor in terms of what they bring in vs what they've been spending on their budgets.

Krenum said:
If you can't afford to spend your surplus, you're broke.
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Then alot of companies and states in general are broke. Holding large liquid assets and large debt at the same time is very common there are a ton of reasons to do it as a company, even more as a state although some reasons as a state tend to be stupid.
 
So. With more folks sucking down electricity for their vehicles, will rolling blackouts be a major problem if it gets too hot in the summer?
 
I took a new job recently in a city. Being the frugal person, I decided I didn't want to pay a stupid amount per month to park. I've been taking the bus - costs me $35 a month and is about a 30 minute ride each way. (About the same amount of time I'd spend driving + parking). I drive 3 miles to the bus stop each day.
This is the first time in my life I've used public transportation for an extended amount of time. It's not bad at all. I download shows on Netflix and watch them during my commute.
I look at all the cars on the road and wonder how much better traffic would be if more people used public transportation. My city doesn't have many options - no subway system or rail. They've talked about it for the last 50 years but never have pulled the trigger. The bus I'm on is under utilized - I'd say it's about 50% full?
 
I like how they push EV vehicles but then raised our gas and registration taxes because they weren't getting enough revenue to fix the roads (or thats what they say at least).
 
Teenk9 said:
This will allow the state to finally tax EV owners that use roads but avoid the gas tax.



By that logic Apple, Google, and Microsoft are broke.

This kind of thinking is why almost half of Americans are one major illness away from being broke.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-cover-a-400-expense/?utm_term=.2e0c3e45a9ef
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Where is the ability to tax ev owners in this? I didnt see anything about that in the article. It is however going to increase everyones electricty bill according the pg&e, and they are going to focus on putting these stations in low income areas for some reason....
 
workshop35 said:
I like how they push EV vehicles but then raised our gas and registration taxes because they weren't getting enough revenue to fix the roads (or thats what they say at least).
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Californians can thank Obama for that, we all can really.
https://gop.com/the-obama-legacy-americas-crumbling-infrastructure/


Despite A "Record-Breaking" $787 Billion In Stimulus Funds, Obama Failed To Get Infrastructure Projects Started Quickly And Jobs Created. "Many of the road, bridge and sewer projects financed by the record-breaking spending bill took more than a year to even start construction as they got bogged down in bureaucratic red tape at the local level. For a country, and a president, eager to see jobs created quickly, the 'shovel ready' part of the projects was a disappointment." (Michael D. Shear, "Obama Lesson: 'Shovel Ready' Not So Fast," The New York Times , 10/15/10)

The American Society Of Civil Engineers Gave The United States' Infrastructure An Overall "D+" Grade In 2017. ("2017 Report Card For America's Infrastructure," American Society Of Civil Engineers , Accessed 6/5/17)

If I was a betting man, I think that the 768 Million isn't going to change much.
 
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Krenum said:
Reality is sometimes hard to swallow I know.
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Yup, you should know.

workshop35 said:
Where is the ability to tax ev owners in this? I didnt see anything about that in the article. It is however going to increase everyones electricty bill according the pg&e, and they are going to focus on putting these stations in low income areas for some reason....
Click to expand...

You really believe California will install all that charging stations for nothing? I live here, everything is taxed.
 
Teenk9 said:
Yup, you should know.



You really believe California will install all that charging stations for nothing? I live here, everything is taxed.
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I know that the electric companies are going to raise rates to pay for it, as the article says. I just didnt see anything about ev owners getting hit with any taxes they aren't already paying which is why I asked in case I missed something. It's not the state government installing these, they are all owned by the private utility companies. And I really don't get why they are focusing on building these in low income neighborhoods, unless they are just trying to make it sound good so they can hit everyone with higher rates.

and I live in CA too, I agree everything is taxed :)
 
Wierdo said:
I'm thinking maybe we should look into city operated car sharing solutions instead of just bus service now, back then we didn't have fancy hightech cellphones so it wasn't as practical, but these days it's a no brainer, we ride Lyft and Uber everywhere even though we have our own vehicle, less hassle than finding and paying for parking.
.
Click to expand...


california doesn't have a parking problem, and it's not expensive.

and hell no to sharing cramped cars with a bunch of strangers.
 
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