Virginia on the EV cutting edge?
Posted June 17, 2010 at 7:20 am 
Filed in: Economic Security, Electrification, Energy Security, Oil Dependence If he’s not careful, Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is going to get a reputation as an energy policy visionary. If you had told us last year that the Commonwealth would emerge to help lead the nation in deploying electric vehicles under conservative McDonnell’s leadership, we would have said you had your commonwealths confused — Massachusetts maybe, Virginia no way!
Yet here it is in black and white in today’s WaPo. After stepping out early on off-shore drilling and wind, Governor McDonnell is now pushing vehicle electrfication. As the WaPo (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-breaking-news/virginia/electric-vehicle-initiative-in.html) reports:
“Virginia’s public and private sectors are partnering on an initiative to increase the use of electric vehicles in the state.
“Gov. Bob McDonnell says state and local governments, utilities, civic groups, businesses and other entities are working on the Virginia “Get Ready” plan.
“McDonnel said Wednesday that the electrification effort initially will target Northern Virginia, Charlottesville, Richmond and Hampton Roads, based on predictions of likely adoption.
“The governor says electric vehicles will be an important means of transportation in the future, and they should be integrated into the existing transportation system as soon as it’s feasible.”
Outstanding! If this public-private partnership stays focused, Virginia may be first in line to host one or more of the electrification “deployment communities” that will be authorized if Congress enacts, as it should, legislation sponsored in the Senate by Senators Dorgan (D-ND), Alexander (R-TN) and Merkley (D-OR) and in the House by Congressmen Ed Markey (D-MA), Judy Biggert (R-IL), Anna Eshoo (D-CA) and Jerry McNerney (D-CA).
Folks who’ve been paying attention to policy development in this area have been imagining that the first deployment communities would be located in places like Honolulu, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and other “islands” where gas prices might be higher, environmental values might be stronger, and first adopters might be more prevalent than in other areas of the U.S.
Little did we know that Virginia would lead the way!
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