To bring clean energy alternatives to New York State, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the beginning of a five year electric truck buying incentive program.
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The plan will give vouchers of up to $20,000 per vehicle to buyers who purchase environmentally qualified electric vehicles weighing over 10,000 pounds from any existing manufacturer.
The program, administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, will be funded in the first year by $10 million of federal Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality funding allocated by the New York State Department of Transportation.
Every average diesel truck replaced by an electric vehicle will eliminate 26 tons of greenhouse gases and save 2,228 gallons of fuel each year. The $10 million will provide for at least 450 vehicles, eliminating about 11,700 tons of greenhouse gases and saving over one million gallons of diesel fuel.
"Here in New York State, one of the biggest concerns is air pollution," said Jeremy Friedman, manager of sustainability initiatives at NYU. "[The plan] is something we would definitely look at if NYU needed a large vehicle."
Governor Cuomo's announcement closely followed a statement by Smith Electric Vehicles, a manufacturer of zero-emission, electric commercial vehicles, about their construction of a new facility in the South Bronx that will be completed by 2012.
"We applaud the governor's leadership and that of the numerous state and local officials who have come together to support a program that encourages fleets to accelerate their conversion from diesel to electric," said Bryan Hansel, CEO of Smith Electric Vehicles.
The new site will produce a solar electrical vehicle called the Newton, which operates at up to half the cost of an average diesel vehicle. Newton vehicles already operate in other cities like Los Angeles, London and Hong Kong. PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division, Coca Cola and Duane Reade currently use the Newton in New York City.
But this program is not perfect. NYU professor Roxana Julia, a specialist in environmental economics, said that because consumer demand for electric vehicles increases the demand for electricity, there is a resulting increase in emissions by coal-powered electric power plants.
"Unless the source of electrical power is clean and renewable, then the policy seems ineffective in terms of curbing emissions," Julia said. "We need investments in more radical long-term policies aimed at transitioning to renewable sources of energy and sustainable lifestyles and less support for expensive, questionable policies such as this one."
NYU environmental studies professor Julianne Warren agreed.
"One question that comes to my mind is what goes into making an electric car and how does that all balance out," Warren said. "I'd like to see incentives, energy and resources going a little deeper than just replacing one kind of car with another kind of car."
