Leaders Strategize To Push Electric Cars In Oregon

Lucila Cejas Epple / OPB

This week the electric vehicle industry group Drive Oregon agreed to take over the plan to increase electric vehicles statewide.

Drive Oregon Executive Director Jeff Allen said his group is going to take the reins on the Energizing Oregon plan, a roadmap to increasing electric vehicle use statewide.

The state got money from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop the plan, which includes adding charging stations and test drive events to promote electric cars. The ultimate goal is to get Oregon past its share of the national goal of having a million EVs on the road by 2015.

Allen said he'll be working with Ashley Horvat of the Oregon Department of Transportation to coordinate the Energizing Oregon strategy.

Drive Oregon has also added Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen to its board of directors.

"It's really important that Oregon remain in the top 10 states for deployment of EVs," said Allen. "There's a lot of competition and we can't just relax. Somebody's got to be out pounding the pavement and working on this. It's not enough to have the individual car companies doing it. You've got to have somebody on the ground in the state doing it.”

older
« Only Tree In World's Tiniest City Park Stolen

newer
Q&A: What Went Wrong At Hanford? »

Comments