Stimulus Success for Electric Vehicles, Components, and Infrastructure Critical, But More Must Be Done

WASHINGTON, July 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Robbie Diamond, president of the Electrification Coalition (EC), released the following statement after the release of a White House report detailing the success of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in jump-starting electric vehicle, battery, and infrastructure production in the United States.

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"The numbers put out by the White House today show that we are on the right track, but we cannot stop here. Now that the electric vehicle, component, and infrastructure industry in this nation is taking off, what is needed is a plan to make sure our national investment is not stranded without customers. Republicans and Democrats alike in both the House and the Senate have introduced legislation that puts forward a careful, responsible pathway to the widespread deployment of electric vehicles in this country. The administration has already testified in support of the electrification bill; now it is time for the Senate and House to pass it. Electric vehicles represent the only way to truly end our nation's dangerous dependence on oil, and we have already waited far too long."

The report can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Battery-and-Electric-Vehicle-Report-FINAL.pdf.

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).

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 Securing America's Future Energy

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