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ANNE GOBIN This plan that we're putting forward today is a continuation of the Comprehensive Energy Strategy the Commissioner spoke about. The
Comprehensive Energy Plan has a big commitment to transportation, and it calls for the investment in clean fuels and vehicles so the basic
infrastructure is in place for the next generation of vehicles. The plan was designed with the consumer in mind. It's really about comparing the
incremental costs and different technologies and fuel savings to determine the payback. It's not picking a winner. It's about making sure the
consumer education is there so our consumers are educated and they can make the best choice for them.
DAN ESTY And, Anne, can I emphasize one other thing, which is another core principal of the strategy as a whole and, certainly, the transportation
piece is that we operate in an era of limited government budgets, and what's critical is that we're going to use limited government funds to really
leverage private capital. This is about the private sector taking the lead and building out that which is needed out over time and providing
choices. So the government wants to be a partner but in some important respects a junior partner to what we think will be the leadership from the
business community.
ANNE GOBIN Thank you, Commissioner. Because of the governor's leadership and the commissioner's direction, we're well on our way and had a lot
going on before we even started putting this next plan together. So I'm going to start by giving you the things already underway. You have to
recognize Connecticut is a relatively small State. We have relatively short commutes, and we are very reliant, unfortunately, on single-occupancy
vehicles. Hopefully that will start to change as our partners in DOT continue to build out mass transportation, but the car is reality in
Connecticut, and those cars are heavily reliant on gasoline and diesel, but where we really have the great opportunity in Connecticut is we have
clean electricity and a very robust fuel-cell industry. So to meet our energy needs, the environmental challenges and build the foundation for
economic prosperity, we need to increase the number of what I call zero-emission vehicles. The commissioner is calling them clean-fuel vehicles.
And, to that end, we've putting a lot of our energy into something we call EVConnecticut, and that's the effort to build a robust charging network
across the State so everybody has the opportunity to own and drive electric vehicles. Also, we've been working... I should say Joel has been working
through CCAT on the hydrogen infrastructure. We have one hydrogen-filling station, and we need to prepare for that growth as the auto manufactures
go to fuel-cell vehicles. So, there's a lot underway already in Connecticut. Our EVConnecticut program has moved steadily forward. We've increased
the number of charging stations. We hope very shortly to be able tell you we have blanketed the State and people can have complete confidence that
electric vehicles can get them anywhere in the State. We focused heavily so far on the level-2 charging, which takes about 2 hours to charge a
vehicle, and we've done multiple rounds of funding, and our next phase in build-out of level-2 chargers is going to move to State agencies and
municipalities. So, there's a lot going on in that arena. We also, in partnership with DOT, have been working on fast chargers, the chargers that
can fuel a vehicle in half an hour at our services plazas. There's a new charger operational in Darien. Greenwich is going to follow shortly, and
we have charging infrastructure planned and getting ready to go into construction in Madison, and we are working on how to build out from there. So
this program has been underway and is going to continue, and we're really excited to see the infrastructure complete in the next year. Joel has been
doing a lot of work in the hydrogen arena and has been working on a plan for where we have the opportunity for hydrogen fueling stations, and this is
his work, but that's underway as well. So this is all on top of what the governor's new direction is, and, as the commissioner indicated, the
governor signed a Memorandum of Understanding with at total of 8 States signed on, and we are committing to work together to assure that we have 3.3
million zero-emission vehicles on the road in the 8 States by 2025. There is regional workgroups working together to look at various things we can
do as a region, but we're moving ahead as a State already. We're not waiting for the others to catch up. So our concept really is that
EVConnecticut and the efforts we have underway already plus this new action plan is going to drive us toward the MOU goal. The action plan is
intended to be dynamic. What we're learning in our work here is this is a constantly changing field. Things evolve. So we've looked at it as a
series of pilots. You try something and you adapt, and I see us continuing in that way, so the action plan is intended to be short-term things we
can focus on and get done, recognizing we will revisit and change along the way. It won't be something that locks us in for the next 20 years of
exactly what we're going to do because we can't know that know. So, from a background perspective for the transportation planners who may not have been
as deeply engaged in our conversations so far, you need to understand that the transportation sector is the largest contributor of both greenhouse
gas emissions and NOx emissions. NOx is the main problem pollutant that generates our ozone, our unhealthy air quality that causes people to be
sick, increase hospitalizations, and even die in Connecticut. So it has big health costs to Connecticut not having clean air. And, as I indicated
earlier, we have very clean electricity, and, therefore, our capacity for getting clean cars powered by electricity is, I will say, better than most
States, so it's an attractive alternative. Consumer choice, in 2002 there were only a few hybrid vehicles and not that many of those cars out there.
Not that many years later, there are more and more plug-in vehicles, fuel-cell vehicles coming into the market, but, unfortunately, Connecticut isn't
seeing the vehicle mix and alternatives that are available in California yet, so we have more work to do to make sure our consumers have the choice
they deserve. So we've been thinking about why is it that consumers choose electric vehicles, and we need to continue our research in that area.
We're doing that project with NESCAUM and the other signatory States to this MOU and UC Davis because we need to figure out how to reach the consumer
and increase their awareness and do so effectively. Another area we are discussing within our regional and interstate work groups is the total cost
of ownership and that there needs to be an easy way and transparent way for the customer to see that. As we've talked to the car manufacturers in
various meetings and chat about how people pick cars, it's very interesting. There are people who set the maximum on what they want to spend, and
that's how they make their decision, and people tend to look at the monthly payment and the fuel cost, and they're not necessarily looking
comprehensively at the total cost of ownership, so we have education and work to do in that arena to help people make good decisions. As far as
availability of the cars, where the market is going and getting ourselves ready with infrastructure, we know there's a lot more zero-emission
vehicle models available in California that aren't being made available here. We know that the plug-in vehicle sales are three times higher in the
States that have adopted the California program, like we have, and we're hearing from the auto manufacturers that many of them are going straight to
the fuel-cell future, and that's happening as soon as model year 2015, and you heard that from Hyundai. A lot of times people talk about it takes
incentives, and there are other States who are providing incentives. We have limited resources. We need to get the most out of our resources, and a
lot of the incentives to buyers of vehicles or buyer giving up, I will say, State resources or increasing taxes to provide them, and that's not
really the mindset of Connecticut. So for our action-plan strategies, again under this MOU, the multistate group is looking at what needs to be done
to achieve the zero-emission vehicle goal, and we need to decide what Connecticut should be doing. So from Connecticut's perspective, we've reached
the conclusion that zero-emission vehicles can be a foundation for economic growth, and Joel put together a great panel over at the legislature that
made that abundantly clear. The ZEVs have the potential to increase jobs both in the electric-vehicle arena and in the hydrogen arena, and we
believe that if this is done right and the vehicles come to market we can actually save consumers money by utilizing these vehicles in their fleets,
and as consumers, it frees up revenue to spend in other ways on the economy. So the kinds of things we are thinking about for our action plan under
this heading would be working with Joel and the CCAT group and create more partners for our hydrogen future, showcasing business success stories and
expertise that's already out there, partnering with the Department of Economic Development to assess the actual impact on the economy and show this
is good for our future. We're also convinced that fleets and the employers are key. A lot of vehicle miles driven are to and from workplaces, and
that requires employers to think about putting in charging infrastructure for their employees, and fleets are an opportunity for lots of people to
see and touch and feel these new vehicle technologies and realize the benefits. We also think it's a chance for businesses to actually save money
with these vehicles in their fleet. So promoting workplace charging is going to be key to our work efforts. Another area the Department and the
State has been very strong in is leading by example, and that's been going on in the energy-efficiency world and the solar- and alternative-energy
worlds. It needs to continue to go on with preparing for these new vehicle technologies. Here at the Department, we've already put in a charger for
the employees to use, and we're working hard to get chargers available under State contracts of municipalities and State agencies have the ability in
one step to procure the equipment and through the regional effort, there is ongoing dialogue about what the best practices for building codes should
be. So we see that evolving too. Another area we are looking at is the electric grates and what's necessary to facilitate the zero-emission vehicle
and clean-cars market. PURA, our regulatory arm that does the rate setting has a number of things in play this year already, and we foresee looking
at best practices from other States through our multistate effort under the MOU. We anticipate that will evolve and we'll get good information. We
know we need to increase the marketing and awareness of the various rates and metering options so people will know and it's transparent what they're
going into, and there's a docket right now underway to set EV rate and inform future design, and we look forward to seeing the outcome of that and
furthering how we charge for electricity that's used in transportation. There are a number of federal partners that we know we need to be working
with. The ability to allow plug-in vehicles into high occupancy vehicle lanes requires federal authorization. There's a lot of interest in chargers
at rest stops. Whether or not that's viable depends on where the electricity is and whether federal highways allows it, and the US Department of
Energy, who's here today, has efforts going on to streamline standards for hydrogen fueling. So we'll be working with federal partners. In talking
to Joel and the CCAT folks, they are developing infrastructure plans and goals for hydrogen and for deploying the vehicles. We know that we need to
continue our partnerships with the auto makers, the hydrogen producers and distributors, government, and equipment manufacturers to be ready for a
hydrogen future. So, in summary, we've put together a series of actions we think we should take and focus on now. That's what's on this slide, and
hopefully you can see them. I've gone through them. They're just reiterated all in one place on this slide. At the same time we're doing this,
there is this regional multistate action-plan effort going on. There's four workgroups looking at different areas, and as they go through the idea,
development, the planning, and developing regional actions, that will further inform what we need to be doing at the State level, and we'll know
better what's going on elsewhere.