Senate Driving in the Right Direction on Electrification
Posted June 22, 2010 at 8:58 am 
Filed in: The U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources today heard testimony on policies to reduce oil consumption through the promotion of accelerated deployment of electric vehicles, as proposed in the Promoting Electric Vehicles Act of 2010 (S. 3495). Witnesses included, Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs at the Department of Energy, David Sandalow (also the author of Freedom From Oil: How the Next President Can End the United States’ Oil Addiction), and Frederick W. Smith, Chairman, President and CEO, FedEx Corporation. Mr. Smith is also co-Chairman of the Energy Security Leadership Council and a member of the Electrification Coalition, two organizations dedicated to addressing the threats posed by U.S. dependence on petroleum.
Reliance on petroleum has created unsustainable risks to American economic and national security and to the environment. So long as the vehicles that power the American economy are dependent on oil, this situation will persist. To mitigate the threat, the United States must fundamentally transform its transportation sector to a system that relies on electricity. High penetration rates of grid-enabled vehicles will radically minimize the importance of oil to the United States, strengthening and reinvigorating industry and the economy, improving national security, and providing much-needed flexibility to foreign policy.
Legislation is crucial to this effort. The Promoting Electric Vehicles Act of 2010 would establish between five and 15 competitively-selected, large-scale deployment communities—a crucial step toward moving electrification beyond a niche product into the transportation sector’s dominant technology. The benefits of vehicle, component and infrastructure manufacturing, of course, would not be limited to these communities. Large-scale production will decrease the costs of electric vehicles for consumers nationwide, helping the technology avoid the ‘eternal niche’ status that has so far seen traditional hybrids account for just 0.6 percent of the total light-duty vehicle fleet more than 10 years after their introduction in the United States.
As Mr. Smith noted in this testimony, “electrification is bipartisan not just here in Washington but across the country.” Over the past 12 months, Americans have seen too much partisan bickering and too little positive progress. It is pleasing to see our leaders in the House and Senate coming together across party lines in support of this important effort to address the future of U.S. energy security.
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