Maryland ranks 10th nationally in electrifying its transit sector, according to a new scorecard from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
As the impacts of climate change become increasingly tangible, policymakers at all levels are looking for ways to combat its effects and hopefully prevent the worst outcomes. Transportation in particular is a prominent producer of greenhouse gases, accounting for just under 30% of national emissions. Due to this fact, the rush toward electrification has become one of the hottest agenda items in nearly all county seats, state capitals, and Washington D.C. In a recent national ranking by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, Maryland ranked 10th for their efforts in electrification and emissions reductions.
From the report:
The transportation sector is responsible for 28% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States.2 Electric vehicles (EVs) stand to play a critical role in reducing emissions, improving air quality and public health, and achieving aggressive climate goals— alongside other transportation decarbonization policies like mode shift and miles reduction strategies. However, EVs currently account for only approximately 7% of the U.S. new vehicle market. U.S. states have the power to remove many of the barriers to EV adoption, support the EV market, and ramp up the building of EV charging infrastructure, particularly for those who have been most underserved by our current transportation system. This report evaluates the activities of the states plus the District of Columbia and ranks the top 33 on their policy and program efforts to electrify transportation. . .
- Rounding out the top 10 are New York, Colorado, Massachusetts, Vermont, Washington, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Oregon, and Maryland. Six of these states have adopted both ACCII and ACT, another has adopted just ACT and plans on adopting ACCII, and the rest are planning on adopting one or both in the near future. In addition to planning via these programs, the top 10 states were also particularly strong in transportation system efficiency (which assesses how states are reducing overall emissions from the transportation sector, including by reducing personal vehicle usage) and electricity grid optimization. These states are driving electrification with strong vehicle standards and planning for the impacts of electrification on the transportation and electricity sectors.
The top 10 ranked states performed well on EV planning and optimizing their electricity grids for EVs but still have a lot of work to do on incorporating equity into their efforts. While the next 20 states showed similar progress and challenges, they could improve considerably on EV planning through the sound adoption of ACCII and ACT and could improve the efficiency of the whole transportation system by having sector-wide emissions reductions goals and investing in transit and school bus electrification.
