A group of environmental organizations petitioned the New York Public Service Commission Wednesday to speed up the statewide buildout of charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles (18-E-0138).

Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), CALSTART, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, South Bronx Unite and WE ACT for Environmental Justice also asked the commission to adapt the existing make-ready pilot program to support early adopters of zero-emission trucks and buses.

The PSC’s 2020 Make-Ready Program Order established a program to encourage development of electric vehicle level 2 and fast chargers throughout the state, providing incentives to offset utility and customer capital costs of eligible charging infrastructure.

NREL is working with other national labs to develop a megawatt-scale charging system for medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, enabling drivers to charge in less than 30 minutes at reasonable cost. | NREL

 

“Electric trucks and buses mean less climate pollution and cleaner air for New Yorkers. But for this to happen, these vehicles need charging infrastructure that meets their operational needs,” EDF attorney Elizabeth Stein said in a statement.

The PSC, she said, can and should work with utilities to support truck and bus fleet electrification in a way that optimizes how they interact with the electric grid.

At its regular session on Thursday, the commission approved utilities’ tariff amendments related to the Make-Ready program. The PSC also established a new regulatory proceeding to track efforts to meet the states’ climate goals, and Commissioner Diane X. Burman cited the EDF petition as a potentially overlapping proceeding that illustrates the complexity of assessing statewide compliance with statutory environmental goals. (See NYPSC Tracks Clean Energy Progress, Questions Process.)

New York’s investor-owned utilities in April reported a slow rollout of EV fast-charging stations under the state’s $701 million incentive program to build 50,000 such stations by 2025. (See New York Utilities Report Slow Start to EV Fast Charging.)

“Communities of color and areas of low-income have been plagued with diesel pollution for far too long,” Anastasia Gordon, energy and transportation policy manager with WE ACT, said in a statement. “Shifting to electric trucks and buses is critical to tackling climate change, improving air quality and health in overburdened communities across the state, and is a step in the right direction to addressing long-standing injustices.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against three bus companies for illegally idling in New York City schools, busy yards and “other locations predominantly in low-income and communities of color throughout the five boroughs,” according to a statement Thursday from the AG’s office. The lawsuit alleges that the companies violated state law prohibiting idling for more than five minutes and New York City law prohibiting idling for more than one minute at schools.