A study released last month by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and the Los Angeles County Business Council said that California should impose income caps on its electric vehicle rebates, encourage fleets to electrify first in poorer areas and otherwise restructure transportation policies to reduce emissions in low-income communities and communities of color.
The joint report calls for “reparative policy investments” as a response to “years of underinvestment in public transit,” housing discrimination and other policies that have hurt people of color. As a result, people of color are more likely to live near heavy traffic corridors and polluting facilities.
“We can make decisions right now to make sure that Boyle Heights (predominantly minority community of Los Angeles) is the recipient of clean trash trucks and clean school buses and that the cleaner, richer areas of the city don’t get those vehicles first,” said the study’s lead author, UCLA public policy professor J.R. DeShazo.
The study also points out that the top 20 percent of California’s most-polluted areas have less than 6 percent of the state’s zero-emission vehicles. The study further recommends putting income caps on the Clean Fuel Reward rebate program; increasing rebates for low-income customers; and making used vehicles eligible for more rebates. It also recommends expanding the Clean Cars For All program, which is currently limited to the Los Angeles, San Joaquin, Sacramento and San Francisco areas.
The study’s other recommendations include electrifying school buses, garbage trucks, utility vehicles and private fleets like delivery vehicles specifically in disadvantaged communities; investing in electric car-sharing and rental e-bikes and scooters; and setting up a government-backed loan program for low-income households’ EV purchases.
California’s current budget surplus may mean that the Newsom Administration and political leaders decide to focus in on these ideas – but then again – the study may be left on the proverbial “cutting room floor.” It will be interesting to see how much or how little State leaders work to “levelize” the playing field, when it comes to EV’s.
