Washington State Looking To Encourage EV Adoption Via Legislation

by Cameron Aubernon

Published: February 9th, 2015

washington state looking to encourage ev adoption via legislation

Legislators in the state of Washington have a slate of bills in mind that would encourage more EV adoption in order to help reduce air pollution.

Autoblog reports one bill would create a “statewide electric vehicle infrastructure bank” that would be used to fund new charging stations throughout Washington. The bank would be funded via a $100 annual fee for EV registrations, as well as a change to sales-tax exemptions for such vehicles via a bill that would renew them through July 2021. The exemption would cover the first $45,000 of an EV’s purchase price, so those buying a Nissan Leaf or a Chevrolet Bolt would be just fine, while those buying a Tesla Model S or X would pay the sales tax.

Other bills in the running include a requirement of all cities in Snohomish, King, Pierce and Thurston counties to allow charging stations in nearly all land zoning categories; incentive programs for builders to add such stations to their projects; and utility compliance credits for those who buy new EV chargers.

#AirPollution #EVs #Legislation #Olympia #TechnologyAdoption #Washington

Cameron Aubernon

Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.

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11 of 54 comments

David C. Holzman on Feb 09, 2015

having ridden literally tens of thousands of miles on oft-crowded bike trails in the Boston and DC areas, and probably run a few thousand on the former, I don't think they are necessarily a bad idea.

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- Landcrusher on Feb 09, 2015
  
  Definitely not necessarily. We have spent tens or even hundreds of millions in Houston for little return. The ones along the bayous and parks get used a lot, as do the ones that replaced railways. Still, if not done cheaply enough they can be losers due to our weather. The ones on a street or sidewalk not seperated from a street get almost no use unless a vital part of a longer path. Signs for bike routes seem a cheap alternative to get bikes away from main routes and into neighborhoods. Combine that with bike only cutthroughs and crossings and you get a winner. We should also add four way stops with signs that bicycles don't have to stop. Seems a good idea. Still, the best thing is for cyclists and walkers to buy real estate that allows that rather than try to demand it come to their doors.
  
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- David C. Holzman on Feb 09, 2015
  
  @Landcrusher Houston? I hear you. I can well imagine they don't get used much. In both Boston and DC they are used, among other things, for commuting. I had a commute in DC for a while that was 6 miles-plus each way, and 4/5ths on bike trails.
  
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- Jdash1972 on Feb 09, 2015
  
  @Landcrusher Houston is a bad example. Houston is a miserable unplanned sh!thole of a mess a riding a bike there is suicide. And no Houston driver would respect a bike lane. On the other hand I rented a bike years ago and rode all over downtown Seattle and I encountered nothing but courtesy and respect from drivers, I was shocked. I live in Texas and I have vivid memories of all the times I was honked at, nearly run off the road and had beer bottles thrown at me - empty and full - by intolerant drivers. Houston is concrete, traffic and noise and little else.
  
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- Landcrusher on Feb 09, 2015
  
  @jdash1972 I'm guessing from your post that you were behaving badly as a cyclist as you are here. Please stop telling people you are from Texas, even if you are, and apologize to your mother for being the embarrassment you have become. Seattle is nice, I hope you got to tour the peninsula, it's fascinating.
  
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Jacob_coulter on Feb 09, 2015

There is no pollution problem in Washington State, dollars to doughnuts this type of legislation is being primarily driven by the people that would profit off such a large government contract constructing such charging stations. In the same way, natural gas powered vehicles pollute around 90% less than a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle. How dumb would it be if the state used tax dollars to build and maintain natural gas charging stations for the public? The same with hydrogen powered vehicles. Technology simply moves too fast, I could easily see these chargers using technology that's completely obsolete but the state will be on the hook for decades to maintain.

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- FractureCritical on Feb 09, 2015
  
  every gas station is a pollution problem. They out gas and they leak. It's gotten so bad that the civil engineering community will wend roads around gas stations only as a last resort rather than risk the potential clean-up work, which can run hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions. Used to be that we'd only avoid true sacred cows like car dealerships and mafia owned car washes. these days, those places are fair game before the local gas-n-gulp.
  
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- EManual on Feb 09, 2015
  
  @FractureCritical The reason for the high cost is that the EPA is a perfection driven institution, with a one-size-fits-all mentality to everything. An old gas station in the middle of nowhere probably needs no clean-up unless it leaks into an aquifer that's being used. It's not like our predecessors didn't bury their garbage. Bureaucrats can't think, they can only react.
  
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- Landcrusher on Feb 09, 2015
  
  @eManual Not to mention the basic government problem that they never get blamed for destroying all the good things that won't happen due to there actions nor even most of the bad things that can't be directly tied to them.
  
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APaGttH on Feb 09, 2015

In the Puget Sound region sales tax on a new vehicle purchase exceeds 9%. No sales tax on an electric under $45K, plus Uncle Sam giving me $7.5K -- this becomes a huge incentive - spend $40K on an electric and you're saving almost $4K in sales tax alone (admittedly in Washington state if you itemize you can write off sales tax)

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IndigoCoyote on Feb 09, 2015

Puget Sound resident here. We have pollution, like anybody else. And we are a long, thin basin with mountains to the east and west. In mid-winter we get inversions, and in mid-summer a dome of high pressure. The big thing here to remember is that we expect 4 million more people in Western WA in the next 25 years. Almost double what we have now. I commend any pol who is willing to face these facts and could give a hang as to what party etc. comes up with out of the box solutions. As long as we get enough forward thinking. However, so-called "Blue" WA now has a D governor, D-ish House and R Senate. I can only hope that we get something besides gridlock. Or we will end up with, umm, gridlock. Oh, and my private utility now rewards me for using more juice at night (on a pilot program for now.) My for-profit electricity costs less than .03/kwh after 10pm. SO, yeah, what that guy said about hydro power not being too storable? Better believe it.

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