North Carolina Drafts Clean Transportation Plan

The state of North Carolina recently published a draft Clean Transportation Plan as the result of a January 2022 executive order by Governor Roy Cooper. The plan calls for the North Carolina Department of Transportation to create a team dedicated to emission reductions and efforts to promote electric vehicles (EVs), transit, and other forms of mobility that rely less on gas combustion engines.

The Clean Transportation Interagency Task Force proposed by the plan would include representatives from the state’s Commerce, Environmental Quality, and Health and Human Services departments.

According to an article by Richard Stradling, published behind a paywall at the Charlotte Observer but also available at Government Technology, the transportation sector produced 36 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions—a plurality among all other emitters in the state.

Stradling also explains that the plan follows a mandate from the executive order to make a plan that would put 1.25 million zero emission vehicles (ZEVs) on the road in the state by 2030.  

“The draft plan covers a range of areas, including finance, NCDOT policies and practices and coordination with utility companies,” writes Stradling, while also pursuing ‘equitable outcomes for everyone.’

The state of North Carolina’s focus on EVs for emissions reductions falls short of the model provided by the state of California, but mimics that plan, along with the federal Inflation Reduction Act, in relying on EVs to reduce emissions from the transportation sector. One of the most prominent debates in transportation planning right now focuses on the question of whether EVs will be enough to prevent the worst effects of climate change, or if the country is missing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reverse some of the damaging effects of over a century’s worth of car-centric planning.

Stradling’s article can be read in full at the link below.