Commonwealth officials say they are considering the switch to electric vehicles and the effects it will bring. While the upfront price is high, they say the investment, long term, is worth the leap.
“The number one challenge in this is really the upfront cost being a little bit more. Although, as you can tell by the hook of the report, those costs are more than made up through savings, vehicle maintenance, and fuel costs.
She says taxpayers in the commonwealth could save over $360 million, if the state government begins to purchase electric vehicles, when older equipment goes out of service.
This “If government entities at the local county and state level, switch their light duty fleets to electric vehicles, instead of gas or diesel vehicles, as they retire those vehicles over the next 10 years.”
She says the cost of fuel has shown to be more volatile than prices of electricity. Officials say using this form of energy will not only be cleaner for the environment, but will help ensure the amount of projected savings. “Making this switch would reduce our global warming pollution here in Pennsylvania by more than 800,000 tons.”
This proposal following legislation by State Senator, Wayne Langerholc, on the emissions testing of vehicles in our area. Sen. Langerholc says the abundance of EV’s increasing on roads is proving emissions tests to be less effective at reducing air pollution. He says a registration fee for electric vehicles will keep a steady flow of funds for further moves on infrastructure. He says this is in his first of 3 bills on electric vehicles.
“It will impose a registration fee yearly, of about $280 dollars to go towards the motor license fund, and to be comparable to what a gasoline vehicle pays in the state gas tanks.”
State house representatives are also speaking up about the savings of using hybrids alone. “If every one of us standing here today bought a hybrid, and we saved one gallon of gas a week, we would save 50 gallons of gas per week. Multiply that per year.”
Penn Environment leaders say the switch from gas to electric is not a hard decision, while a plurality of PA republican leaders say otherwise. That debate remains underway.
