Clean Fuels Ohio Persuades State to Create Innovative Financing Incentive for Alternative Fuel Schoo
Through the work of Clean Fuels Ohio and our industry partners, the Ohio General Assembly created a new incentive for school buses as part of the state budget bill. The legislation will provide school districts an easy pathway to fund the additional cost for school buses that run on alternative fuels like propane, CNG and electric, then pay back financing from savings on fuel and maintenance. All of this can happen without having to appeal to taxpayers through a levy. School personnel interested in this new innovative program will learn more by attending Midwest Green Fleets Forum and Expo on August 1 and 2 in Columbus. The School Energy Program, established in 1985, allows school districts
As more employers, retailers, fleets and municipalities explore installing Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE), Clean Fuels Ohio regularly receives questions about the cost of the equipment and expected maintenance. Given that EVSE units seen at public and private sites today are relatively new technologies, there is not much significant data on the lifespan or average maintenance costs of EVSE. Thankfully, research and support from the US Department of Energy Clean Cities Coalition provides some guidance to EVSE maintenance: Non-networked Level 1 and Level 2 charging stations require very little maintenance and upkeep. You may need to replace the commercial grade electrical outlet per
“Electricity has to come from somewhere. How can electric vehicles be better when they are powered by coal in Ohio?” This is a common comment heard while attending electric vehicle (EV) promotional events throughout the state. While it is true that a majority of Ohio’s electricity is produced by coal, EVs today are already cleaner than all but a few internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and will be cleaner than all of them in the future. The reason is a combination of the extremely high efficiency of EVs over ICEs plus the transition of our grid to cleaner energy sources. In the last five years, we have witnessed a drastic change in the way our electricity is produced. According to the Ener
There have been a number of attempts to create carve outs for specific projects through Ohio’s General Operating Budget in the State Legislature in the past 6 months. The Ohio House and Senate had a variety of language to provide more guidance to the Ohio EPA regarding how that money should be spent. Unfortunately, some of these were extremely poorly thought out, and would have put Ohio’s share of the compensation at risk. Part of the final civil settlement between Volkswagen and the USEPA resulting from Clean Air Act violations requires the company to pay $2.7 billion to an environmental trust. This portion, referred to as Appendix D of the settlement, allocates $71.4 million from this trus
