Cities can take bold action on climate and can often move more quickly than other levels of government such as state or federal policy. In 2021, Hovland Consulting was excited to support the Electrification Coalition to develop an EV policy toolkit, officially: Electrifying Transportation in Municipalities: A Policy Toolkit for Electric Vehicle Deployment and Adoption at the Local LevelPolicy Toolkit for Cities.
Our goal was to create a report that supports local policymakers and advocates in their efforts to increase transportation electrification by providing a summary of the top transportation electrification policies that local cities should consider.
Initially looking at nearly 100 potential policies and priorities, we narrowed down the list to 40, and Hovland Consulting worked closely with the Electrification Coalition to prioritize the top 15 policies. To do this, we considered a range of qualitative and quantitative benefits and considerations important to cities:
Climate and greenhouse gas emission reduction potential. Generally, the more modes or the more vehicles addressed the higher the benefit, with the recognition that most emissions come from cars and freight trucks.
Public health, especially driven by reducing diesel emissions and the particulate matter coming from freight trucks and buses.
Social equity, including benefits, such as when infrastructure policy might be targeted toward multi-family dwelling units, and concerns about potential economic burdens, such as road toll equity concerns unless designed to address or consider the impact on low-income communities.
Local job potential, highest when expanding charging infrastructure (based on multiple studies in the US and Europe) and also the potential jobs to implement the policy.
Market impact, incorporating expert input from researchers, advocates, EV industry, local governments, and studies.
Difficulty to pass the policy, estimated from past work and the policy stringency.
Cost to implement the policy, with higher costs for policies that have more public engagement, policy design, potential pilots, enforcement, or to purchase vehicles and infrastructure.
The report pulls together the top 15 policies grouped by charging infrastructure, multi-sector (affecting multiple types of vehicles), freight, fleets, and consumer electrification. We include a mix of policies that were easier to pass or implement, such as EV-ready building codes and streamlined charging approvals, and ambitious policies to aggressively support zero emissions, such as zero-emission areas, diesel bans, and fleet requirements. For each policy, the report also has a wide variety of examples so cities can learn from and lean on each other.
By presenting all of these factors (in a stoplight red/yellow/green format), our goal was to let the cities customize good policies based on their local priorities and environment. For example, if climate and health were most important, regardless of how difficult a policy was to pass or cost, they could look at a subset of strong policies such as a zero-emission zone. If equity and jobs were most important, another set of policies might rise to the top such as infrastructure deployment. Or if they were facing challenging conditions, they could focus on policies that were easier to pass, such as city fleet requirements.
Our goal was to create a highly effective document for use by local governments and support many local stakeholders in their decisions, including mayors, city/town council members, county commissioners, city and county administrators, finance officials, metropolitan planning organizations, air quality districts, environmental health departments, municipal/county fleet managers, transit directors, sustainability directors, and other relevant municipal and county agencies and officials as they consider the important process of electrification within their municipality.
“The policy toolkit is a comprehensive resource for policymakers and advocates … with strategies that can be tailored to the needs of each community….The toolkit streamlines the policy research process for decision makers, from the country’s largest cities to its smallest rural towns.” The Electrification Coalition
To read some of the reactions to the Toolkit from cities, read the recent blog from the Electrification Coalition.