(Image: City of Seattle)
With 75,000 electric vehicles already on the road in King County and a requirement that two out of every three new cars sold in Washington must be zero-emission vehicles by 2030, drivers need more options for charging up.
The Seattle City Council this week approved legislation allowing City Light to lease private property to install and operate city-owned public EV charging stations while opening up access for companies to lease City Light-owned property to install and operate additional charging stations.
Seattle officials have been trying to add enough public charging stations to meet demand as new development has also helped boost the number of chargers here.
City Light estimates that the approved legislation will allow for the installation of around 10 to 20 additional charging stations over the next two years. “This builds on other work City Light is already doing,” a council brief on the vote reads. In March, the department announced they would be expanding their network of chargers to 31 new locations. In April, City Light launched its multifamily EV charging program that helps advise and offers rebates to install charging stations.
Capitol Hill-Central District-area charging stations are planned on Bellevue Ave, 13th Ave 15th Ave, and 19th Ave and would be operated by the Shell Recharge system.
The city says transportation is the top cause of greenhouse gas emission in Seattle, accounting for 61% of the city’s “core greenhouse gas emissions.” The city’s environmental goals include a call for 90% of all personal trips to be zero emissions by 2030.
You can view a map of new and planned public charging stations here.
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There seems to be no effort to keep them available. The one on MLK near Jackson has had the same truck plugged in for weeks. In a three hour parking Zone.
As long as people think these are for Theo own reserved parking space, they will not be useful.
Shell. A nifty PR way to add coin to fuel exploration, extraction, refining, etc. Their plans are to continue to increase all into the foreseeable future, such as that future is.
Yay, more help for rich people!!!!! /s
Glad there’s so much political momentum and funding to continue to support… car infrastructure and related environmental degradation and the profits of the Shell corporation. Very climate first! I’m sure the plan has “equity” written in it too!