Executive Speeches

Remarks of Eugene W. Zeltmann, president & chief executive officer of the New York Power Authority, at the Municipal Electric Utilities Association of New York State (MEUA) Annual Meeting, Saratoga Springs, New York.

August 28, 2002

Good afternoon.

It’s a pleasure to be here in Saratoga Springs—famous for horse racing, spring water and sulfur baths.

And it’s great to have with us today the president and CEO of the American Public Power Association—Alan Richardson.

His presence is a tribute to the importance of public power in New York State—and to New York’s importance in the national public power movement.  And I think it’s fair to say that neither of those conditions would exist if not for the longstanding and productive partnership between the Power Authority and the MEUA.

Let me begin by mentioning briefly that we’re moving ahead with our life extension and modernization programs at Niagara—and at our St. Lawrence-FDR Power Project.  We’re investing a total of more than half a billion dollars in these efforts, which will keep the projects running at maximum efficiency for many years to come.

At Niagara, nine of the 13 turbines at the main generating facility—the Robert Moses Niagara Power Plant—have been replaced.  We’re on schedule to complete the job in 2006.  And at St. Lawrence, we’re now replacing the second unit, with 14 more to go—a process that will continue until 2013.

Speaking of hydropower, I’m sure you’re all aware that we’ve been on a bit of a winning streak lately with respect to Great Lakes flows and your Niagara allocations.

Early in 2002, we were anticipating shortfalls in hydro energy allocations for every month of the year.  But the flows have been better than expected.  And if our forecast for September holds up, it will be the fifth straight month of full allocations.

Our current predictions, though, are for cutbacks in October and early next year—so we’re not home free.  As always, we’ll appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

In somewhat of a change of pace, I’ve been asked to speak today about electric vehicles—a topic that many of you may have anticipated when you saw the EVs and hybrid-electric vehicles in the hotel parking lot.

A little while ago, there was a news story about a Hollywood agent who was driving along with his arm out the window of his electric vehicle, when a huge truck sideswiped the car and ripped the agent’s arm off.

When the police arrived, the agent was complaining bitterly about the damage to his new EV.

"You Hollywood people are so materialistic, you make me sick," said one officer.  "You're so worried about your stupid car, you didn't even notice that your left arm was ripped off!"

"Oh, no!" said the agent.  “My Rolex is gone!”

Although I’m not as attached to electric cars as that Hollywood agent, I have to admit that EVs have captured my imagination.  Now, in addition to my day job at the Power Authority, I’m co-chairman of the Electric Vehicle Association of the Americas— an alliance of electric utilities, automakers and component manufacturers working to advance electric-drive technologies.  For me, it’s really a labor of love.

Electric cars, believe it or not, date to the beginning of the auto industry.  In those days, electric motors slugged it out with gasoline motors.  But the fight was over what most people thought would be a small niche of the transportation market.

Few believed cars of any kind would ever eclipse the horse and buggy, which was far more reliable than the so-called Tin Lizzy.  Early automakers were often ridiculed, as evidenced by this cartoon in which a banker meets with the young Henry Ford.

“Do you realize, sir,” the banker asks Ford, “that if your invention should gain popular acceptance, we should have to provide paved roads, thousands of pumping stations to supply ready access to fuel and innumerable vacant lots in every city in which to park these vehicles?  Take my advice and forget this folly, Henry.”

Well, Henry didn’t take the advice.

But not even he could foresee today’s mass market.  He and other automakers estimated the ultimate world market potential to be no higher than 1 million cars.  By 1915, the industry had already crossed that threshold, and during the ‘20s the car culture took root in the United States.

The Depression of the ‘30s and then World War II temporarily slowed further growth.  But, during the postwar period, the U.S. automobile industry experienced its most dramatic and sustained expansion, buttressed by massive highway construction projects, cheap and abundant oil, and a wave of unprecedented affluence.

A car in every garage seemed not too audacious a dream.  And not many years passed before the dream spread to other countries as well.

The world’s car fleet has grown from nearly 50 million vehicles in the immediate postwar period to nearly 700 million today.  And all signs point to continuing growth.

That, of course, carries negative environmental implications.

Now that the Chinese have begun trading in their bicycles for cars, for example, the resulting tailpipe emissions could affect the entire western Pacific and have global ramifications as well.

Meanwhile, U.S. automobiles remain the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.  Passenger cars and light trucks in this country alone emit more greenhouse gases than total greenhouse emissions from all but three other countries.

Although industries are the largest energy users, the transportation sector emits almost as much carbon dioxide because of its nearly complete dependence on petroleum fuels.

Not only that, but transportation accounts for about two-thirds of petroleum use in the U.S.  And cutting our dependence on oil, especially imported oil, is a top priority—all the more so in the wake of last September 11.

So—for environmental and national-security reasons—it’s clear that some changes are in order.  And that means getting the maximum possible benefits from EVs—and from the hybrid vehicles that team battery-driven electric power with a conventional engine.

Our clean-fueled vehicle initiatives in New York State have grown significantly in recent years, thanks to Governor Pataki’s determination to clean the air, protect the health of all New Yorkers and reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

The Governor has aggressively promoted EVs and other clean transportation through state tax credits, bond act financing and an executive order setting increasingly ambitious annual targets for use of clean-fueled vehicles in the state fleet.  The order requires that, by 2010, all new light-duty vehicles acquired by state entities be clean-fueled—except for emergency, police and certain other vehicles.

Just last week, new regulations developed by the Pataki administration to speed the deployment of clean-fueled vehicles in New York were approved by the state Environmental Board.

The regulations require that by the 2004 model year at least 10 percent of the vehicles sold in the state meet extremely strict emission targets. A specific requirement for EV sales will kick in two years later.

This “Alternative Compliance Program” is a flexible, practical approach.  It will put more clean-fueled vehicles—including hybrid-electrics—on New York’s roads sooner.

I think it’s significant that a number of major environmental groups were involved in developing the new regulations, and strongly support them.

Despite such public policies to encourage the use of clean-fueled vehicles, the dominance of the internal combustion engine will not change overnight.  But New York, under Governor Pataki, is clearly a leader in seeking to accelerate the pace of that change.  And there’ve been some promising developments elsewhere.

Last month, for example, the California legislature passed a tough new law that will for the first time require automakers to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from cars and light trucks.  The law doesn’t take effect until the 2009 model year.  But the potential implications are huge.

That’s because California is the nation’s largest vehicle market and accounts for 10 percent of new U.S. car and truck sales each year.  And automakers clearly aren’t about to sacrifice a share of this lucrative market.  In the past when they’ve had to make more fuel-efficient vehicles to met California standards, they’ve gone on to sell those vehicles in other states too.

Meanwhile, other state governments across the U.S. are working to improve opportunities for EVs, hybrids and other clean-fueled vehicles.

Though their range is still limited, recent advances in battery and electric motor technologies have made pure electric vehicles more practical than ever before—particularly for specific, localized applications.  And hybrids offer an immediate hope for broader use.

In fact, the state legislature recently approved a bill proposed by Governor Pataki that will make it easier for purchasers of hybrid vehicles to obtain sizable tax credits.

You might say we're getting to the future slowly but surely.  The more EVs and hybrids we can put on the road, the more we can make people conscious of them, the larger impact we’re likely to have.  And despite the current lack of infrastructure—charging stations and the like—I think we’re on our way.

EVs may one day draw on the same infrastructure—gas stations—that most of today’s vehicles use.  That will happen if fuel cells begin to replace the internal combustion engines in cars and trucks.

A fuel cell converts hydrogen—obtained from gasoline, or other fuels—into electricity by combining it with oxygen from the air.  The process is an electrochemical reaction similar to what occurs in a "normal" battery.  The only byproducts are heat and clean water.

Only the most optimistic observers think fuel-cell cars will be generally available any time soon—probably not for at least a decade or even two.  But the Bush Administration supports this technology and a number of automakers are working to move it forward.

At the Power Authority, introducing people to the idea of electric vehicles began far more prosaically—in our own fleet.  But we then set out to help a number of our customers and others obtain EVs or hybrids for themselves.

We’ve been involved to date in deploying some 350 electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, ranging from full-sized transit buses to battery-operated bicycles.  These vehicles have been road-tested for more than one-and-a half million miles, which gives you some idea of their viability in everyday use.

One of our biggest current initiatives is the “NYPA/TH!NK Clean Commute,” the nation’s largest electric vehicle station-car demonstration program.  The program features Ford’s TH!NK city electric vehicle, a two-passenger car with a range of about 50 miles between recharging—ideal for distances typically traveled to and from train stations.

We began last fall with 100 EVs available for lease at $199 a month.  More than 90 have been spoken for to date—so the appeal of these vehicles for this purpose is clear.

Participants use equipment at station lots in suburbs of New York City to charge the vehicles while they’re off at work.  And since the area’s commuter and subway trains run on electricity—most of it supplied by the Power Authority—we have here the makings of a clean all-electric commute.

This is just the kind of program that can help broaden public acceptance of EVs.

But—for all our success with this and other efforts—we know that we’re still in the early stages of public awareness and acceptance of electric vehicles.  After talking with MEUA leadership at your last conference, we agreed that NYPA and the MEUA have a very real, mutual interest in this area.  And it seems to me that nobody would be better at getting out the word on EVs than the members of the MEUA.

So I’m delighted to join Karl Lux in announcing today a cooperative effort between the Power Authority and the MEUA to promote the use of electric vehicles in New York State.

It’s especially fitting that public power is uniting to promote environmentally beneficial transportation choices for the citizens of New York.

Your systems, of course, are served by hydroelectricity from the Power Authority.  And by using that clean, renewable power to fuel emission-free electric vehicles, MEUA members will showcase their commitment to environmental quality.

Working with NYPA, the MEUA has put together a survey that I hope you’ll all fill out to give us some idea how we might help your systems promote the benefits of clean transportation.

If there’s sufficient interest, we expect to offer a program to lend you cars for demonstration in your communities or for use in conducting educational programs in public schools.  We’ll continue to work on this together, and we hope to have the details in place by the end of the year.

For today, I urge all of you to test-drive any of the electric or hybrid vehicles we brought to the conference—particularly if you didn’t get the chance yesterday.

As someone who has driven a number of EVs and hybrids, I can tell you that the ride is as sure and smooth as a Rolls-Royce, though much more efficient—and virtually silent.

The vehicles we’ve made available for you to test-drive range from standard-sized cars to SUVs and sub-compacts—including the TH!NK city.  And we even have an Italian motor scooter, an electric bicycle and a utility vehicle that’s great for maintenance chores.

So go out and take these EVs and hybrids for a spin and let us know what you think.  I hope you’ll like them.  And I’m confident that you’ll be taking a clean and quiet ride into the future.

Now—to jump-start our cooperative program—I want to call on Bob Mullane to accept the keys to a Toyota Prius, a hybrid-electric vehicle. We’ll be lending this car to the MEUA for a year for use on Association business.  We also have a Prius among the vehicles here today for anyone who wants to try it out.

Bob, please come up for the keys.

Thanks, Bob, and thank you all very much.

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