Plug In America Meets with CARB Members and Staff

Plug In America has been actively working with CARB since the board addressed the ZEV Mandate at its May 2007 public meeting. Our meetings with new Chair Mary Nichols and CARB staff are ensuring that the board is well aware of our positions.

Since the May meeting, PIA Executive Director Chelsea Sexton's public call for technology neutrality between Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCVs) has been brought directly to staff and board members. This neutrality would end CARB's bias toward the more expensive, less viable ZEV option.

We've learned that some board and staff members have come to believe that the ZEV Mandate is meant to be a technology-pushing research project. We've stressed that the mandate was intended to put ZEVs on the road in the hands of drivers, which it successfully did until its 2003 revision. Thousands of battery electric ZEVs were leased and sold. The 2003 revisions, favoring FCVs, sidetracked a successful ZEV program. It is time to get the mandate back on track.

Supporters of plug-in choices need to make our voices heard. Well-funded lobbyists for the auto, hydrogen, fuel cell and petroleum industries need to be countered with citizen input. CARB needs to know the public is watching.