Clean Transportation (cont'd)

Environmental Benefits

Electric vehicles and hybrid-electric vehicles make sense, particularly in urban areas, for many reasons. The emissions from internal combustion engines include nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons, which, when combined with sunlight, produce ground-level ozone, or smog. Carbon monoxide and small particulates are also found in automobile emissions.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that about two-thirds of all the oil consumed in America is used for transportation. Besides being cleaner, electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrid-electric vehicles (HEVs) can help reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Environmental Benefits of All-Electric Vehicles:
Since an electric vehicle has no radiator, oil or gas filter, muffler or spark plugs maintenance and easier and EVs are much quieter than gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.

In most cases, EVs rely on power plants for their fuel, so questions have been raised about indirect environmental impacts. NYPA generates most of its electricity from nonpolluting hydroelectric power sources. Controlling emissions, even from fossil-fueled power plants, is easier and more effective when done at a central source rather than from hundreds of thousands of tailpipes.

EVs are also more efficient. In a test conducted during the American Tour de Sol electric-vehicle race, it was established that an electric Geo Metro could travel about twice as far on the same amount of oil (converted to electricity at a power plant) as could a conventional gasoline-powered Geo Metro.

Electric Vehicle Incentives

Tax incentives that took effect in 1998 provide a tax credit equal to 50 percent of the incremental cost of purchasing electric or other alternative fuel vehicles—up to $5,000 for light-duty vehicles and $10,000 for heavy-duty vehicles. New York State provides tax credits for the purchase of clean-fueled vehicles and their supporting infrastructure. In addition, the Clean Water/Clean Air Bond Act of 1996 provides $55 million for state agencies' clean-fueled vehicles and mass transit.

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Contents:

• Introduction

• A variety of activities

• Hybrid electric transit buses

• School bus emission reduction

• Electric school buses

• Delivery vans

• Green Zones

• Green fleets

• Truck stop electrification

• NYPA Clean Commute^TM

• Benefits and incentives

• How electric drive vehicles work

New Technologies
Energy Services