On Tuesday, October 29, Plug In America honored four Arizona organizations that are leading the electric-vehicle transition in the state at the inaugural Drive Electric Arizona Awards.
The awards were presented at the Arizona Transportation Electrification Forum, which brought together key players in Arizona’s growing electric-vehicle marketplace, including EV manufacturers, decision-makers, educators, utilities and innovators.
“It’s exciting to honor the awardees for their dedication to an electric transportation future,” said Joel Levin, executive director of Plug In America. “Arizona will see enormous benefits from growing EV adoption—whether the EV is a personal car, heavy-duty piece of equipment, or an electric bus. Arizonans have much to gain from greater electric vehicle use, including lower utility rates, fuel and maintenance savings and improved public health.”
The Forum convened about 150 stakeholders who participated in panel discussions, presentations, EV test drives and the awards luncheon.
The Drive Electric Arizona Awards honored the leaders in four categories: EV City, Public Education, Leadership and EV Champion. The 2019 awardees include:
- EV City Award Winner: City of Flagstaff, has made a commitment to expanding publicly available EV charging stations, to gradually electrifying the city’s fleet, to adopting EV-ready building codes for residential buildings, and to incentivizing charging at multi-unit dwellings.
- Public Education Award Winner: Phoenix Union High School District, took significant action to encourage adoption of electric buses and to educate students on transportation electrification. In April 2019, the Phoenix Union High School District voted unanimously to begin adopting electric buses.
- Leadership Award Winner: Arizona Corporation Commission approved an electric vehicle implementation plan in July 2019 after opening a docket on the issue in August 2018, demonstrating that Arizona is serious about transportation electrification and the benefits that come with it.
- EV Champion Award Winner: Salt River Project Management and Board, fully realizes the benefits of EVs – a better driving experience, financial savings, and cleaner air. That is why its “2035 Sustainability Goals” document enumerates the ambitious goal of enabling the use of 500,000 electric vehicles by 2035 in its service territory.
The 2019 Drive Electric Arizona Awards were selected by a committee of organizations working to advance transportation electrification in Arizona and are presented by: Plug In America, the Energy Policy Innovation Council at Arizona State University, and the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project. For more information, visit https://www.azteforum.com/awards.
Photo Credit: Salt River Project