2021-05-11 00:00:00 - Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change

2021-05-11 00:00:00 - Senate Committee on Global Warming and Climate Change (Part 2 of 2)

SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


JUDY CHANG - MA UNDERSECRETARY OF ENERGY - Great, good afternoon everyone, Madam Chair and all the Senators. My name is Judy Chang, the under Secretary of Energy and the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and Energy. Today, I have a slide deck but before it gets pulled up because I think my colleagues supposed to pull that up, I will just let you know what I'm going to cover in the 15 minutes allowed. First, I'm going to give a brief update on the clean energy climate plan for 2025 and 2030 associated with the climate legislation. Then I'm going to talk briefly about the emissions from transportation and the challenges associated with electrification of transportation. Then I'm going to talk about action plan for clean transportation from the variety of agencies and focusing on some of the efforts that we're putting out and then I'll conclude.

I think I can keep going until the slides are pulled up, I think it's fine because I think most of the things in the beginning you will you'll be very familiar with them. So, I just want to touch base back on the decarbonization roadmap. We examined eight economy wide decarbonization scenarios in a way that's like a futuristic using a scenario based planning process to look at the what if pathways for decarbonization and reaching net zero by 2050. It is a way using the best technology available and the modeling efforts that we have, the modeling technologies that we have. It was multi year effort and the summary and you know, the picture of the cover126 pages on the slide showing a summary report in six technical reports talking about each sector.

We use this 2050 roadmap study to also develop strategies and plans for the next decade or the near decade, so I will talk a little bit more about that in next slide. The preliminary plan for the 2025 and 2030 CECP will be to really update that and take the time that's being shown and and included in the legislation of July 1st 2022 to158 complete both the 2025 and 2030 plan and to comply with the law with all the requirements set forward. Preliminarily, this is our current timeline for engagement, we recognize that the law provides public access to provide public hearing on the proposed limits and policies. So we're setting up this summer and fall,184 and then later this year and then early next year on the variety of steps that we need to take in advancing the 2025 and 2030 plan.

We also recognize that we can actually wait till July 1st of 2022 to actually conduct the implementation, so some of the programs are already underway and the ones that are not, but there are good ideas from the interim CECP, the 2030 CECP, we're actually going to take that forward. So we're really doing planning and implementation at the same time over the next two years. All efforts are aimed at meeting the 50% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2030. Directionally, I think they're similar to the 45 reduction that was contained in the interim CECP, but we're totally currently working on the details of how much more we're asking for each from each sector for the emissions reduction to meet the 50% by 2030.

At the same time, we will also need to develop a plan for 2025 and that will be completed through the same amount of work. The next part of the slide shows you the initiatives and very briefly, because I know where I want to talk about EVs, is really about, you know, some brief summary of268 all the major269 components, not all of it, but major components. New stretch building code pivoting energy efficiency program toward energy transition as opposed to just insulation and lighting, kicking off commission for clean heat because as we recognize in the interim CECP that we need to cap the emissions from heating. Next, conduct more clean energy procurement as the authorization given by the legislation and improve as we continue to work on improving the wholesale electricity market so that it can accommodate all the electric upgrades that we need.

Implement the TCI, the Transportation Climate Initiative and continue incentives for EVs which the rest of this presentation will be on. Then also as you heard from the electric distribution utilities, we're working with the utilities on EV infrastructure and distribution system modernization. Then not at all talking about here, but we also continue our work on climate resilience and adaptation. This slide, the right hand side pie chart is actually a chart that was in the interim CECP, it basically points out if you took the parts of the green, parts of the blue, it adds up to about 40% of Massachusetts total greenhouse gas emissions and the road map analysis, both in Massachusetts and other jurisdictions have found that electrifying transportation, we reduce emissions, particularly as we increase clean electricity supply.

Some of our observations from prior studies show that the current zero364 emission vehicles account to only about 3% of all passenger vehicles sold in Massachusetts and a very negligible share of medium and heavy duty vehicles and the primary challenges and as you already heard from prior speakers is electric vehicles currently are still more expensive upfront and conventional internal combustion engine383 vehicles, particularly with the added cost of charging stations. Currently,388 limited public charging infrastructure but of course, you know, we're increasing and improving that as you heard from the EDC, the distribution utilities. Then consumer awareness I think needs to increase as you talked about earlier as well as consumers see that infrastructure charging facilities are available, they're much more aware of availability of EVs and I think that will also take hold in the industry.

EV adoption impact on grid. I won't dwell too much on this but you heard from the EDCs, the distribution utilities that we do need to think about charging and when people are charging, naturally, you probably have heard 85% to 90% of the charging actually happens at home or places of work if people drive to work. So naturally those are typically at night but we need the infrastructure to be able to allow consumers and utilities to manage the charging as you heard from the distribution utilities. Okay, so typically a car is parked, as I said, 95% of the time, which means really the463 time one needs to charge is only 6% of the time of the life of the car. So what we really need is allowing that that flexibility of when to charge is actually quite valuable for electricity system.

So even if we were adding a significant amount of electricity needs, because of that flexibility and because of the ability to control when to charge, we're not necessarily 1-1 adding to the capacity on the electric system. So, I think that multi day or even intraday flexibility is an opportunity to optimize charging502 from our and using our clean energy investments like solar and offshore wind. Before I move on to the other topics about how it impacts grid, I also want to talk a few things about, we are working toward developing programs that would provide opportunities for low and medium income people, people who purchase new vehicles typically are wealthy, so we need to focus on how to reach, as you heard from previous speakers, how to reach low and medium income people.

Meanwhile, we don't want to encourage people to buy vehicles that are more expensive than they can afford nor do we want to encourage people to buy cars when they don't actually need a car if they're living in an urban area and less emitting and less expensive options are available. So we need to take into these consideration as we set policies. We also need, as you heard before, consider renters and create incentives to make charging infrastructure available to those who may not have off street parking or have a place to charge of their own, so those things are all quite important. The Clean Transportation strategy and action plan really capitalize on a few things before getting back into the how it affects the grid.

One, we need to capitalize as Senator Pacheco particular had asked before, capitalizing on new federal opportunities on vehicle fuel and emission standards, tax credit or any other financial incentives on charging infrastructure and others. We need to cap transportation emissions and invest in clean transportation, which is part of the TCIP. Then we need to reduce upfront vehicle costs through incentives and technical support, which I will talk a little bit more about. We need to deploy EV charging equipment and enable624 smart charging which you see on the slide. Then we need to engage consumers and facility facilitate market as we know and so sort of take it to the personal level, we do see more and more EV available in the marketplace, at least for passenger vehicles and how do we actually facilitate and help that market evolve I think is an important feature.

To one thing I want to stay up front to, Massachusetts, I'm sure you're aware of this, Massachusetts is set out by law to adopt California's vehicle efficiency rules, so California has an authority663 under the Clean Air Act, established vehicle emissions limits independent of the federal government and our law, Massachusetts law requires us to implement California vehicle emission standards as long as they are more stringent than the federal standards. California is moving forward with a number of important rules with the consequences for us. California has approved through its Air Resources Board or Carb the Advanced clean Truck ACT rule which requires manufacturers to meet690 increasing percentage of zero emissions truck sales over time.

Through that executive order, the Governor695 of California also set a goal of 100% of in state sales of new passenger cars and trucks to zero emissions by 2035 which was included in our clean energy climate plan of 2030 as well. We articulated that we need to set the same goal of 100% in state sale, up to zero emissions by 2035. California ARB is also developing advanced clean fleet regulations right now with the goals achieving zero emission trucks and bus fleet by 2045 starting with more easily electrified market segments such as last mile delivery. Overall, federally, the current fuel efficiency standards are in place until 2025, but it's yet to be determined what's going to happen after that.

While California's regulatory power and its ability to influence the marketplace gives us some confidence that we can also achieve the scale that we want with EV technology, we know we820 still have a lot of actions to take going forward. So back to EV adoption impact, a grid, one of the things827 that you already heard about is fast charging or DC fast charging. While majority of the charging832 does occur at home or while part, some will occur during long trips. I think it is important to alleviate the range anxiety when it comes to, I think some people have said through the earlier speakers that having visibility or being able to see that you can charge while you travel is an important aspect of this.

When necessary, if the particularly DC fast charging, if those charging are actually used a higher power takes, energy storage could be a part of the solution, so that's another thing to consider. We don't yet have the necessary infrastructure to support electric trucks, and here again, as I mentioned before, high powered draws will require, not only sometimes thinking about energy storage, but it may have impact on citing new infrastructure. These charging sites are more likely to require storage, but also we need to think about how do site new electric infrastructure in general as we electrify not only our transportation, but some of our heating systems as well.

Probably, you have heard this already from the utilities, it is important to think about our time of use rates and demand charges or in general rate making in the electricity system because we don't want to inadvertently create incentives for928 people to not charge when they need at the same time or to avoid building the infrastructure we need for charging. So we are looking at opportunities to improve our rate design, to lower the demand charges, particularly for public charging infrastructure and the DPU, Department, public utilities investigating the required meeting investments to optimize EV charging and the use of different rates at different times and alternative demand charges structure this year.

So policies incentive to encourage adoption requires an awareness both at the awareness of car purchase, during the time of purchasing a car and we need to be very careful because once an internal combustion engine is purchased again, it's likely to be on the road for the next 10 to 12 years. So we need to think about how to change people's behavior as they make the purchasing decisions. The same time, I think another awareness that's necessary at the pump as our oil prices start to rise again, I think this will be really interesting to see if there is an uptick also from that perspective from people who are naturally incentivized to look at electric vehicles.

One of the things that even I was surprised to see these numbers is that every fill up is, you know, have1030 500 lb. of CO2 emissions. So really any time we can transition that energy use is a1035 good thing for emissions reduction. I want to talk briefly about more EV. More EV has been implemented since 2014 and it has yielded rebates for over 19,000 electric vehicle purchases since then. I understand that the uptick has already occurred post pandemic, so we're actually seeing a significant increase in interest in purchasing electric vehicles, particularly in the last month, since March, so we have seen an uptick in that. DOER has also rolled out more EV truck to provide rebates to electrified medium and heavy duty vehicles and these large trucks, particularly, conventional delivery trucks disproportionately contribute to air quality concerns in environmental justice communities and we see through the Covid situation that there is a strong correlation between poor air quality and increased, certainly asthma and other issues with health.

So we do think that providing more incentive for electrifying EV trucks would be a good approach. Before I get into the sort of, well, actually I'll just talk about this S curve, the S curve the idea is that, you know, the more we have positive experience, the faster the adoption rate will occur. I want to take this opportunity to also talk about a few other programs that are really important to think about and to consider, the Mass Clean Energy Center just rolled out a fleet advisory program. The idea there is to engage technical consultants to help electrification of medium and heavy duty private fleet. The idea there is to provide education and information and help fleet owners to consider how to use available electric fleet when they become available, but also how they might have to change their operations as they think through about using electric transportation to substitute for the internal combustion engines.

The goal is that 50% of the fleet1169 will be associated with environmental justice populations such that the fleet with depots located in EJ communities will be prioritized and fleets that operate mostly in EJ communities will be a priority as well.1184 In addition, we think that the fleet advisory will really1189 help educate those that have an opportunity to purchase electric transportation for all the operations that they need. Charging infrastructure, a little bit more about this, Massachusetts definitely is one of the leaders in already providing publicly accessible charging stations and I think this is an important aspect as everybody acknowledges and I think the leadership and preparation has enabled us to leverage early investments by private corporations.

In general, I think, you know, electrifying transportation provides significant way to substantially reduce emissions and major increases in transportation energy efficiency, I think it's extremely important for us to think about how to help people transition to the next generation of transportation. Transition to locally supplied energy, as we add more low carbon electricity generation onto our electricity grid, this is the direction of how to get the emissions out of1313 the system of the transportation system. At the same time, if we can increase the use of our electric system, while sort of levelizing all the users, we don't actually have to build as much as one for one to increase the use, so that talks to the controlled and the manage charging. So overall we see a lot of opportunities and all our agencies are working to advance both knowledge as well as the program to reach consumers. I'm happy to answer any questions about any of the programs or direction that we're taking. Thank you.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


SEN PACHECO - So when we go out to purchase a new vehicles on a yearly basis and work with the New England States, the Reggie States to do the same thing, the state fleets, the county fleets and the local fleets, opportunity for everybody to buy in. By doing that, we would create a major impact on the EV or clean energy market. So I'd like to see where are we with that, because that's something that everybody in the administration, either in the Secretary Beaten or Secretary Theohari's have all said it's a great idea, but it just hasn't happened. Then the second thing would be hydrogen, you know, vehicles. I know we have one of the places where people can get fueled up in Braintree and I think there are a couple of other areas, but the fuel cell and hydrogen association telling me that that's going to be a multi trillion dollar part of the clean energy industry within the next four or five years. So what's happening there? So those two questions. Thank you very much.

CHANG - Yes, thank you for those questions.1533 In fact, I will append the slide deck with some just brief overview on the executive order, 594 on leading by example, and perhaps we're using the term a little bit differently, but leading by example, executive order was signed again, were renewed by Governor Baker on April 22nd and the effective date was July 1st1554 2021 later this year. It supersedes a previous executive order on 484 and in it along with other targets and ways to set example for the state and for the region, includes electrification of fleet. The goal is to of course increase two thirds of the state's fleet, meaning, you know, sort of our state agencies fleet, our trucks and vans, and often they have special requirements.

So we are acknowledging that some of that might be challenging, at1596 least with the current availability of trucks and vans but we did set an ambitious target for the state to progress forward. The zero emission vehicle targets as part of leading by example, applies to portfolios including of course, battery, electric, fuel cell, electric, so hydrogen and plugging hybrid electric technologies with the target of 5% of fleet by 2025 and then 20% by 2030. Part of the challenge is the availability of the type of fleet that's available in the marketplace as well, so we think that more of the transition will probably happen in the second half of the decade but certainly, leading by example, executive order targets state agencies fleet to be electrified and setting the example for the rest of the Commonwealth as well as New England region as a whole.

Back to your question on hydrogen, I do think we leave the options quite open while we talk about EVs and electrifying vehicles, we really really mean zero emission vehicles, so to the point that fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen as a fuel is cost effective solution, I think that's sort of embedded into our goal1678 to eliminate or1679 to reduce emissions from Transportation.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


SEN BARRETT - There's a certain clash of narratives that concerns me. On the one hand, for years, ever since the 1990s, folks have talked about S curves and S curves had this comforting suggestion that we're going to make up for last time very radically on the back end. Sometimes that proves to be the case, sometimes the S curves though are never realized. The other narrative is that and I want to compliment you for your 2030 Clean Energy plan is the increasing acknowledgement that we can't always wait to back end improvements, we can't always point to S curves as if we're going to be rescued magically at the very end of a sequence. Instead, the new theme struck in your more recent documents is that we've got to make genuine radical change now because the moment for the S curve to demonstrate success is rapidly approaching. So let's talk about EVs. In 2013, a Governor's MOU suggested that by 2025, we would have 300,000 EVs in Massachusetts.

The 2030 plan adopted by you folks suggest that by 2030 we will have 750000 to a million EVs on the road. Today, by your estimates, your administration's, we only have 25,000. So we have 25,0001799 today, we need 300,000 four years from now and we need 750,000 to a million, nine years from now. We're getting to the point where S curve narratives cannot save us and where it seems as if the progress we needed to make this year has not been made and that the progress we had hoped to1830 make two years from now will not be made and that we will fall off the pace that we need in order to get to our 2025 and 2030 goals. How are we going to dramatically in a game changing way, step up the pace of EV adoption in Massachusetts so that we no longer have to point, wistfully toward the very end of an S curve as if we're all going to be delivered from our failures at that point?

CHANG - Yes, very good question, Senator, thank you for that. I've been looking at EVs for probably 15 years and the last time we had an increase in oil prices, we were hopeful that EVs will take off and it didn't. So I completely understand your sentiment here. I do think things have changed and dramatically, I think globally, the market has shifted and we see that from the manufacturers. The reason I brought up California also in this presentation, it is important to understand that Massachusetts alone is not enough to move the market, so we have to drive it with others that can affect marketplace, right? So we're driving that.

At the same time, we are being as aggressive1908 as we1909 can to provide financial incentives for people to purchase EVs. We are now working with our EDUs, Electric Distribution Utilities and private entities to ensure that we have infrastructure so that like you heard earlier, just the visibility of ability to charge will not be another roadblock for people not wanting to buy EV. Then we need really education and Mass communication

BARRETT - Where is that going to come from, where is the Mass communication going to come from?

CHANG - So Mass CEC has started the advisory service or advisory work for people who own fleet. I think we need to work with the sort of lowest hanging fruit or the highest impact and maybe, I mean this is not yet in our plan, but maybe like you said, maybe we need a huge communication campaign to work on that. We are also, you know, sort of making sure that the incentives are shifted so that it's not burdensome for people to get the incentives. I think we understand that we need to identify the barriers and break down the barriers and work with others to maximize the movement in the marketplace.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


SEN BONCORE - I want to sort of piggyback on some of the points that Senator Pacheco is making about hydro cell vehicles and you were bringing up California, I should say and how they've really created an environment for hydro cell vehicles in California, building networks of pumps of stations so on and so forth. I wonder, you know, what do you think Massachusetts has to do to signal to manufacturers and consumers on the other end, who are thinking about a hydrocele vehicle to get there? Do you think it's time that Massachusetts hydro cell vehicles to the more tv program for to incentivize it?

Secondarily, the only prohibition that I'm aware of hydro cell vehicles coming into the commonwealth is a prohibition that do sell vehicles cannot travel through tunnels are over bridges. While I understand why that policy was probably put in place some decades ago, I'm not sure why the regulation hasn't changed with this new technology on board? Because I think you're right, I think when we talk about, you know, Z'EVs, you know, there's more than just electric vehicles in that conversation, so I just want to know what the administration's next steps are around hydro self now?

CHANG - Those are really good questions. Again, I think a very2098 high level we're not closing up any options, right? So we're not trying to choose winners and losers. So, I don't think we currently have a specific plan to advance hydro cells, but I think that is a conversation that we really should have and to look more into it. Particularly, like including them in any incentives that zero emitting as opposed to just battery cell vehicles. I think it's worth considering. Right now, we don't have that yet and I think we can certainly start looking into that and try to understand where the2136 dynamics are.

We should also learn from other jurisdictions, not just California, but other places that have looked into this. Of course, as government, we only have certain resources meaning financial incentives to provide, so to the extent that we think that supporting all the EVs, all different technologies is important, I think we should not necessarily pick2159 winners and losers at this point. But I want to also advance that conversation by saying that we do see more adoption of electric vehicles, we see more brands and models of electric vehicles today, so I think in some ways, we're also moving where the marketplace is moving.

BONCORE - Can you speak to the prohibition on tunnels and bridges?

CHANG - Yeah, that I think our agency needs to work with the Department of Transportation to get into more of those details. So I thank you for bringing that up as a topic that we need to address, so I certainly will look more into that with DOT.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


SEN CREEM - So let me just ask you, do you think that2217 utility should be allowed to own and operate a charging stations under some circumstances in addition to installing the support of infrastructure?

CHANG - That's a really good question. I do think the electric utilities have a role to play in charging infrastructure. They in some ways if we're at the place where we're really still picking up, I don't want to harp too much on the S curve, but we're still picking up right, we're still building up that infrastructure and I do think the utilities have a significant role to play to create that starting infrastructure. So I would not have a blanket opposition in utilities owning some charging infrastructure as a blanket statement, because I do think there are certain opportunities or situations where utilities might be in the best situation to own certain infrastructure.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


PACHECO - I just want to close the loop on the question I asked before. I know we had a leading by example, executive2296 order, etcetera, etcetera, but I still haven't seen anything done on the regional procurement, the opportunity to work with other states and2306 municipalities, county governments, local governments, they're not getting very good value trying to get one car at a time, two cars at a time here and there, that's not sending2318 the right market message out to the industry and if we could pull together a procurement, whether it's that 5% a year or whatever the number is that you're talking about2330 for Massachusetts, but just think what a market signal it would have if you do it with our 11 North Eastern states or 10 states and the local governments and the counties. And we're going out together, we're gonna have better prices and we'll have better outcomes in terms of leading by example. So that's what I'm asking you and the Governor to consider, we've been talking about it since Secretary Beaten was here, that's a long.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


CHANG - Yes, I think you make a good point. Again, that's leading by example is exactly what it it tends to do and we certainly intend to help state agencies and the governments where electric vehicles or zero emitting vehicles are available to suit their need. Even if they have to adjust certain operations to capitalize on what the current supply is available, I think those are opportunities that we need to do. So you're absolutely right, we we do need to2410 move ahead and try to use our purchasing power to reduce the cost and implement and adopt zero omitting vehicles as much as we can.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


JULIA REGE - ALLIANCE FOR AUTOMOTIVE INNOVATION - Madam Chair and members of the committee, I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and provide an automotive perspective on electrification. I am Julia Rege, vice president of Energy and Environment at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. Just real quickly, Auto Innovators was formed in 2020 following the merger of the two previous automotive trade associations known2579 as Auto Alliance and Global Automakers. Our organization today represents 38 automotive organizations throughout the supply chain, including Auto makers that produce and sell about 99% of the new light duty vehicles in the US as well as Tier one suppliers and mobility and technology companies. Our association's mission is to work toward2601 cleaner, safer and smarter transportation for all.2603

Today, I'd like to focus on four areas highlighting achievements to create a cleaner and greener fleet, investments and efforts to expand electric vehicles, a focus on the necessary measures to encourage and support additional EV growth in the market and finally, a look at how we prepare for the future. Okay, as much of today's2627 focus is on the future of electrification, it is important to take a moment to recognize the achievements that have been made and the efforts that have been made to expand innovation, cleaner air and value for customers. The auto industry has been innovating for years. Efforts to date have led to cars being 99% cleaner than the 1960s and increasing fuel efficiency by 30% since 2004.

These achievements have supported federal and state goals to reduce smog forming pollutants and decrease greenhouse gas emissions and these efforts are continuing in the years ahead. In addition, the focus of today's presentation, Automakers are building electric vehicles. Today, there are 50 models available for sale and many more2671 expected in the coming months and years. Just to clarify, I will2675 use the term2676 EV today with a broad meaning to include plug in hybrid electric vehicles,2679 fully battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles, all of which are necessary EV options for the future. Now, despite the success today and rolling out over 50 models, EV sales in the2692 us as a whole hover around 2% and 50% of those sales are in California.

So if you look at the US without California included, EV sales only comprise 1% of new vehicle sales on average, again, this is the US as a whole without California. This only demonstrates that there is much work to be done as we collectively strive to increase EVs. The reason our collective efforts are needed is because there is increasing focus on an all electric future. Automakers are committed2723 to expanding EVs with $250 billion committed through 2023, automakers will be expanding options, types, sizes of vehicle price points, range, really the full facet of options that will bring more to the table for customers and meet more customers needs in the coming years. All of this investment will lead to many more electric vehicles for sale.

Our estimates from auto innovators suggests approximately 130 models by 2026. Other parties, in this case, IHS market predicts significant EV growth on the order of 500% leading to around 300 models and 15% market share in the US as a whole by 2027. Further, all of these efforts and invest end investment fit into a larger vision one that reflects automakers commitments to achieving net zero carbon and aspirations to significantly expand electrification in the coming decades. Automakers are committed, we are bringing the vehicles to market and we are actively working to grow consumer adoption. Yet automaker efforts alone will be insufficient to increase demand and adoption and there is more we can all be doing to ensure the necessary conditions for success are in place for electrification.

For instance, at the federal level, auto innovators has been engaged and advocating for supportive EV policies. In late March, we joined with the United Auto Workers and the Motor Equipment Manufacturers Association to outline to President Biden a bold and comprehensive vision that will support our nation's global competitiveness, contribute to economic security, align with environmental goals and support the US workforce as we transition to electric vehicle technologies. As part of this comprehensive strategy, we highlighted three primary areas where the federal government can lead and expand and increase availability of funding through a variety of programs. First, efforts that promote innovation and increased manufacturing and supply chain.

This also includes training and support measures for our workforce. Second, expanding programs and supporting policies that grow the availability of charging and hydrogen refueling infrastructure and third, ensuring federal funding aimed at decreasing technology costs, ensuring purchase incentives and overall increasing awareness of and access to EV technology for all customers. While this work at the federal level is critical, making sure the US as a whole is prepared for and working to advance EVs, it is equally critical to make sure state efforts continue and2887 grow at the same time. In particular, a number of states, including Massachusetts, have long stood behind electric vehicles and required the sales of these vehicles.

Massachusetts, for instance, leads among the Northeast and mid Atlantic states for new EV market share, but there is still much work to do to catch California and the Western states. Again, looking at how to expand sales further will require additional efforts and focus in an understanding of what types of conditions for success must be in place. Traditionally, the focus has been on incentives and infrastructure and both2920 remain critical. States like Massachusetts who have programs like more EV workplace charging efforts, dedicated infrastructure development plans and integrated utility processes have seen the most success to date and that's2933 what this chart shows. The bottom line that has a variety of blue hatches, shows states that have in place a combination of incentives or infrastructure and what you see is states that tend to have a combination of both to date have had some of the strongest EV sales in our nation's.

Of course, we don't want to diminish but efforts like the Massachusetts ZEV commission have been equally critical to coordination and developing alignment among stakeholders. I do want to highlight that incentives continue to be important as we work to reduce the up2968 front costs of EV technology, battery electric vehicles on average remain about $10,000 more than a comparable gasoline vehicle and so incentives, both at the federal and state level have provided one of the best ways to address this barrier to expanding adoption. Secondarily, infrastructure often acts as a barrier as well, because customers need to have access to readily available and affordable charging.

States like California who have a dedicated plan, a roadmap for overall strategy as well as individual components and who have committed as a conservative estimate on the order of 3.5 billion, one billion alone of that has been for vehicle purchase incentives to date in California. States like these have seen investments provide strong results and best in nation sales. But even California will face challenges ahead, the Governor's commitment to an electrified future will push policy and require an all hands on deck approach to making sure that the market is developing at the same pace as the technology that must come to market. As we work to understand how to achieve a pathway to full electrification, California has presented its initial plan.

In 2026, one in four new vehicle sales must be electric. Three years later, one out of two must be electric and by 2031, three out of four new vehicle sales must be electric. All of this is on the pathway to 100% in the next 15 years. Of course California is not the only state heading in this direction, California just starts from the most advantageous point for striving to achieve this goal. So when California and 11 Governors sent a letter to President Biden recognizing the challenge ahead and the significant efforts needed to transform the transportation fleet, Auto innovators responded with a letter to Governor Baker and the other Governors. We are pleased to see the recognition from these Governors that this will not be a small lift and we wanted to confirm our commitment to working with the state to make sure we have the important complementary measures in place to lay the foundation for success and that this will require automakers, state and local government, utilities, builders, fuel providers and more to support these aspirations.

In these letters, we highlighted important metrics, measures for success and other key metrics where we can work together. For instance, the road to all electric is steep, this chart shows just the lift needed in Massachusetts to go from 3% of new EV sales today in approximately 2020 up to 100% by 2035. This will require a more than 3000% increase in sales today in Massachusetts. As more EV enter the new vehicle market, this will also replace vehicles on the road, but it will take more effort and time beyond 2035 to fully transition the fleet of vehicles already on the roads. At the same time, state focused efforts to significantly grow charging infrastructure must keep pace and increase 100,000 times to ensure the necessary infrastructure is in place to support homes including multi unit dwellings, workplaces, highway travel and more.

Further, we have a real opportunity in Massachusetts related to hydrogen refueling and fuel cell vehicles. Your state has been proactive in working with automakers to address barriers like tunnel restrictions, as was mentioned in the previous session, and we are hopeful to see resolution on these issues soon. This work is critical to making sure fuel cell electric vehicles can enter the market and provide yet another all electric option for customers. In addition, it will be necessary for supporting the investment and efforts to develop hydrogen stations. Some of that work is already underway and we hope3222 to see additional state investment in hydrogen going forward.

Finally, while infrastructure and increasing incentives continue to be critical to the goals of long term electrification, there are a number of additional ways the state should lead by example, everything from state fleet adoption of course aligned with or even ahead of the consumer goals to EV ready building codes, additional utility engagement application of the transportation climate initiative and more. We are3252 truly appreciative for Massachusetts, ongoing commitment to participation in the Northeast Consumer awareness program known as Drive Change Drive Electric. These market measures require all stakeholders working together in the state to provide a foundation, and ensure the necessary conditions for success.

I know I've provided a lot3271 in a short amount of time here and I'm happy to answer questions, but to summarize, the pressure to electrify is great and automakers are committed to working to increase EVs in the US. Else, we strive to significantly increase EVs whether 50%, 75% or 100% in the coming decades.3289 The ability to achieve such goals requires a coordinated and comprehensive effort at the federal level3297 and at the state level. There is a critical role your state can play in providing a consistent and sustained approach to reducing costs, expanding infrastructure and expanding adoption. More importantly, your state's efforts to3309 engage stakeholders and bring all parties to the table to work together on the vision and define the investment needed will ultimately be critical to ensure the necessary conditions for success are in place. Thank you.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


KEVIN MILLER - CHARGE POINT - Thank you very much, Madam Chair, I appreciate the opportunity and appreciate the committee's focus on3364 this important issue. I'll try to be briefer than I was expecting to be and I'll provide written comments subsequently to provide more detail. So, I really appreciate the Senate strong partnership with both the EV and EV charging industry and in focusing on cleaning up the transportation sector as a whole. Last session, you know, the Senate really lead in passing Chapter 383 of the Acts of 2020, the transportation bond bill, in3392 which Section 29 requires utilities to file alternatives to traditional demand based electricity rates, which will really target the highest barrier to the deployment of high powered charging.

So we really appreciate that effort and recognize the leadership particularly of Senator Barrett, Boncore, Pacheco, Crighton and Tarr, I mean it was just a real group effort and I think this is also a great opportunity to build on that success. I'll briefly give some background of Charge Points business model to set the context for how the EV charging industry3422 works. I'll identify a few barriers and potential solutions for the committee to consider in a couple of different pockets of barriers and then end with a slight discussion of federal issues that are coming up.3433 So, Charge Point has been around since 2007. We design, manufacture and provide EV charging hardware and we also provide the software, the network solutions on the other end to make sure that all of our stations are smart and connected.

We have got hundreds of thousands of chargers in our network, thousands of which are in Massachusetts, but we primarily don't own or operate any of those that are operating on our network, they're all owned by cities and3458 towns, state agencies, private fleets or hospitality locations, retail locations, anywhere you can park your car is where you can charge your car and so our business model is to support the places which are part of the new fueling network, all those locations where we go. So as the committee considers barriers and challenges and how to develop policies to accelerate widespread access, I just respectfully urge consideration for those new policies and ideas to focus explicitly on specific barriers.

So I'll give you three examples of barriers, one looking at upfront capital costs, another looking at ongoing, and operating cost barriers and finally thinking about regulatory or structural issues. So we've already heard a little bit about how it costs more to retrofit an existing parking space for installation than it does to buy the charger itself. One can address that as folks have previously talked about through requiring the board of building regulations and standards to adopt EV ready requirements as we've seen around the country, Senator Barrett's Senate 2008 would address that but there's also ways that the commonwealth can lead by example. For instance, making DCAM or other agencies with capital budgets when they create parking spots to consider EV readiness already.

So what's the type of investment the commonwealth is making and how can we avoid costs wherever possible? There's also a need to think about what are the expanding business models, is the only way that folks are installing charging stations by buying the charger and then installing it? Or are they starting to take a kind of software as a service approach where they're subscribing to hardware itself. So are the incentives and the programs and policies being designed to allow for things like deployment of chargers through monthly costs and that's helpful for potential operators who don't have the capital flexibility to make the outright purchase, so having flexibility and how we design these incentives is important as well. I also wanted to note, you know, support for looking at a time limited sales tax exemptions has been addressed by Senator Barrett.

There are ways to just reduce the operating cost friction on the EV charging infrastructure side. I won't go into too much detail about the demand based electricity rates because we're looking forward to seeing how those processes move forward3591 but there are ways to look at structural issues that can further address mitigation of ongoing operating costs. So one issue that's come up a bit has been about what are appropriate roles for competitive market actors and what are appropriate roles for regulated market actors. I think it's important to start off by identifying that the Department of Public Utilities already set forth clear guidelines to evaluate in which instances it would make sense for utilities to recover costs and that three pronged set of criteria was further codified by the legislature3624 in Chapter 44 of the exit 2016, so it has to be in the public interest as to meet a need regarding the advancement of EVs in the Commonwealth that isn't likely to be met by the competitive market and it shouldn't3639 hinder the development of that market.

Essentially, how do we minimize costs to ratepayers and maximize benefits to ratepayers and having those regulatory and statutory guardrails really, foundational to Massachusetts its success. As and if and as the committee considers whether to revisit those, it's just important to identify that that process has already been working thus far and we've seen increasing filings by utilities to further support the competitive investment and I think3664 it's not an either or it's really an all in situation and how can we make sure that we're leveraging as much private investment as possible to stretch and defray any potential impact on ratepayers. If there is consideration, though, there are additional best practices that we'd love to circle back on as you think about a further expansion of those but as we look at it again, it's not an all or nothing, there are ways to make sure that if that changes that it's done so in a way that doesn't have inadvertent consequences.

It may have already come up today, but looking at another issue, the relative carbon intensity of transportation fuels, clean fuel standards around the country and in Canada have been really effective tools and can complement transportation, climate Initiative. One other piece I wanted to mention before, I briefly touch on some of the federal things that the committee should consider is coming, is looking at what are the other options that are available for providing comprehensive support to communities for medium and heavy duty vehicle fleets and those are truly whether they are privately held or publicly held, those types of vehicles are going to have the most critically impact on communities and how do we create tools that are either non financial mechanisms or provide relief for what those3736 fleet operators are already looking at?

So non financial incentives for deploying and supporting those types of3742 fleets could be considering green loading zones. So revisiting the types of Roadway and bridge regulations that are in place to ensure that as we look at loading zones in general, how do we ensure that that last mile delivery or that short haul freight is increasingly a mission free on the tailpipe? I think I'm probably passed my three minutes, but there's a lot of exciting incentives and programs and policies on the federal side that the committee should consider from a significant expansion of the 30 C federal tax credit for all fuels, vehicle infrastructure.

There's also going to likely be support for corridor charging that the state will have a significant role in supporting as well as direct to consumer rebates on the infrastructure side. So there's a lot that's going to be happening and a lot of things that we can do to prepare right now to address those. So again, I'd be happy to provide further material to the committee and some further recommendations for the types of preparation that can make sure that as additional resources become available, that they're leveraged in the best way and that we avoid inadvertently increasing costs on ratepayers in the pursuit of cleaning up the transportation sector.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE




CREEM - So this would go to Rege, I've been concerned from articles I've read regarding the lithium3903 mining. Mining the lithium is required to produce electric bag, please can be destructive to the environment and some mining practices are more damaging than others and at this point there's some question about whether they've been mining in native American reservations. What are the automatic majors in the alliance doing to reduce the negative environmental impact in the supply chain? Are they using recycled lithium? I know there's lithium that comes from water, they're working on something in the sea in California. I'd like to know if you do, what's the plan and if they're not doing something now, is there a plan?

REGE - Yes, thanks for the question, Madam Chair. So we have been actively engaged in discussions in the US with California and globally about how to create sustainability through the chain related to the use of critical minerals. We've been working on a set of policies related to recycling and take back of batteries, making sure that we have appropriate secondary use programs in place, and all around making sure that we can provide the cleanest and most efficient electric vehicles using the critical minerals that are necessary to produce the batteries. I will tell you though, at the same time, we are looking at significantly increasing EVs here in the US and it does require that we have a vision and a set of federal policies in place that encourage the ability to increase supplies of these critical minerals, even recycling alone at this juncture will not produce enough of the minerals to support our vision on the road to 100%4009 electrification.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


CREEM - One question on the charging point, what is the charging industry doing to support the improbability of the different vehicles in different charging stations? I'm confused, if I had a Tesler, I would have my own particular station and that takes up room. Now the car, I didn't go by a different car, I can't use4042 that charge. Do you have a plan to sort of get us all into one kind of a charging station?

MILLER - That's a great question, and I think having4049 consistency is really important. Universal accessibility to publicly funded infrastructure is critical, so if there is publicly4055 supported infrastructure out there, it should be4057 possible for drivers to pull up and plug in and pay in the way that they prefer. So, Charge Point has worked in and participated in the development of connector standards to ensure consistency. Whether you're charging with a level two charger, which is plugged into a 240 volt outlet, like your dryer plug or consistency if you plug into a direct current or DC fast charger.

On the level two side, there's primarily one connector standard that anyone can use or a Tesla could plug into with an adapter. That's got an acronym and we don't have to get into what4100 that is, but on the DC fast charging side, you have a situation where we're slowly working through kind of VHS versus beta or a track versus cassette, whichever your preferred metaphor is and in that case, charge point always provides both options which are the CCS connector for the Chatham o connector. So we want to make sure that no matter who pulls up,4123 they're able to plug in.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


BARRETT - I have a very brief question to ask both of you. Given the way charging infrastructure has evolved in the states where it is advanced, maybe were limited to California. Give us a sense of the allocation or the pie chart, who is leading in4156 developing? Is it government directly installing a charger? Is that the utilities, is that the private property owner. Regardless of how it happens, how does the pie divide? What are the relative size of the slices? Who the heck is putting the chargers in place when all is said and done?

MILLER - I can take the first crack at that. I think when you're talking about the most personal who possible, Charge Point doesn't send her out charge point vans and selling all our stations, we're working with local installation operations and management partners, often working with local value added resellers, which creates local jobs. So we're based in Silicon valley4197 California, but every one of our chargers is locally owned and operated.

BARRETT - What's important is that locally owned operator that's confused, that's not specific enough.

MILLER - Sure. So I'd love to expand on that, so I think our owners of our charging infrastructure, are individual drivers at their homes that they have a detached garage. It could be, if it's a multi unit dwelling building, it could be the operator of that building or individual residents and tenants of that building. If it's a location like a hotel or a grocery store, if you go into Roche Brothers, it could be them who is deploying a charging station. There are also some of our competitors who own and operate their own stations and directly provide that charging service to drivers. So there's a huge variety of business models that are out there. When it comes to figuring out what's the right mix? I think 90% of charging is taking place at home and at work at longer periods of time.

So making sure that we're really supporting those use cases is important and making sure that we track how work evolves over time as we come to the next new normal after the pandemic is also important. But I think that those are4273 going to be the primary places where you're going to see the infrastructure evolve and the next place is going to be at destinations, right? So it could be a pit stop along highway or it could be that destination location that you're going to, it could be the library, but that's really just for personal vehicles. There's a totally different use case when we think about light, medium and heavy duty fleet vehicles, which often charge behind a private depot and in those situations, you're not going to have real visibility, those stations aren't going to4302 show up on a list of publicly available stations because those are helping to keep vehicles for hire vehicles, TNCs, to delivery trucks to different types of fleet street sweepers, those aren't going to be charged publicly.

So there is a broad mix and when it comes to which entities are actually doing the work, I think what we're seeing across the country is a partnership between regulated utilities and the competitive market, where if you look at the traditional line of demarcation of regulated utilities investments, that typically is at the customer's meter. In some cases, as we're doing through the department of Public utilities, that's being expanded to support investments up to, but not including the charging station. So utilities are deploying infrastructure to help support private investment that will typically cover a significant portion of the costs.

Having that partnership can ensure that there's a collaboration between the utility and the place that's deploying the charger so that they can help to receive the right price signals to incentivize charging to take place at times that are beneficial to the grid. So there is a wide variety of use cases, there are a number of entities that participate and I think the best path forward are the ones that honestly Massachusetts has already implementing and has had in place. It's hard to keep finding the next new solution when Massachusetts has already taken so many solid steps forward and really set a great foundation for supporting greater transportation electrification.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE




PACHECO - California is like the fifth largest economy in the world but when you look at it4412 and put it together, it could be people, several states, you know, throughout the country. Their procurement policy for EVs or a fuel cell, could you just give us a little reaction to how they're doing it? I mean, do they have a number of bids coming out, have they done a statewide procurement from centrally statewide or have they been doing it through county?
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE


REGE - So I think the main pieces that California has in place a set of goals and requirements for their agencies to expand adoption, their actual procurement procedures is something I would want to go back and send you a response just to make sure I get the details right.
SHOW NON-ESSENTIAL DIALOGUE
© InstaTrac 2025