EC Applauds Inclusion of Electrification Provisions in Senate Bill

WASHINGTON, July 27 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Robbie Diamond, president of the Electrification Coalition (EC), released the following statement after the release of a detailed outline of the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act:

"We applaud Senate leaders for including provisions for electric vehicles and infrastructure in the energy bill introduced today. We are pleased to see electrification deployment communities, which will guarantee the success of electric vehicles beyond early adaptors, will be included in this legislation. The deployment community concept has broad support, from mayors across the country to business leaders to the White House to Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate.

"The electrification of our cars and trucks remains the best way to fundamentally deal with the dangers posed by oil dependence. If the United States electrified half of its cars and light trucks, we could reduce petroleum consumption by almost five million barrels a day -- roughly equivalent to the entire amount we import from OPEC nations today.  We look forward to seeing the details of the electrification provisions in this bill and working with Leader Reid and Republicans and Democrats alike to move support for electric vehicles forward."

On May 27, Republicans and Democrats in both the House and the Senate introduced legislation designed to advance the wide-scale deployment of electric vehicles and to develop the infrastructure needed to support them. The Senate bill, entitled the "Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010" was introduced by Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). The House legislation, entitled the "Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010," was cosponsored by House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming Chairman Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Judy Biggert (R-IL), Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA), and Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-CA). A version of the legislation was approved by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on an overwhelming bipartisan 19-4 vote on July 21.

The legislation echoes recommendations put forward by the Electrification Coalition, a nonpartisan, not-for-profit group of business leaders committed to promoting policies and actions that facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale in order to combat the economic, environmental, and national security dangers caused by our nation's dependence on petroleum. The EC's Electrification Roadmap, released in November 2009, proposed a set of policies in which geographic areas would compete to be selected as electrification deployment communities: specific areas in which targeted, temporary financial incentives are employed so that all of the elements of an electrified transportation system are deployed simultaneously.

SOURCE Electrification Coalition

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