The CEC proposed awarding nine grants this year under this particular program (Solicitation PON-10-602, Regional Plans to Support Plug-In Electric Vehicle Readiness.) The four awards just approved included:

• $199,379 to SANDAG. The grant will allow SANDAG to create the “San Diego Regional Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council (REVI),” a group of public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. In addition, SANDAG will provide $50,451 in match funds. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the San Diego area and create a set of consistent best management practices to simplify their introduction.

  Members of REVI will include San Diego County; the Cities of Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, Del Mar, Escondido, San Diego, and Solana Beach; and three regional public agencies including the San Diego County Regional Airport Authority, the San Diego Air Pollution Control District, and the San Diego Unified Port District.

  Also included is the San Diego Regional Clean Fuels Coalition (designated as the US Department of Energy Clean Cities Coalition); the California Center for Sustainable Energy; the University of California, San Diego; Miramar College Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Center; electric vehicle technology companies ECOtality and AeroVironment; and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E), the local utility.

• $200,000 to the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District, the project’s lead entity, will create “Plug-in Central Coast,” a coordinating council of public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the tri-county area.

  Members of Plug-in Central Coast include Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties, along with their respective air-quality management districts who will provide a total of $50,000 in match funds; the Ventura County Transportation Commission; the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments; the Community Environmental Council, which serves as liaison to Plug-in Santa Barbara; the Central Coast Clean Cities Coalition; the Cities of Grover Beach, Arroyo Grande, Ventura, Oxnard, Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, and Ojai; and local utilities Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E).

• $200,000 to the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. The grant will allow the air quality management district to serve as lead entity for the “Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council” (PEVCC), a group of public and private leaders representing counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District will also contribute $200,000 in match funds. The council will help encourage the use of plug-in electric vehicles and create a set of consistent best-management practices to simplify their introduction into the marketplace. The council considers the 2011-2013 time frame to be a critical “tipping point” in the move to electrified transportation.

  Government agencies that will make up the Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council will include the Association of Bay Area Governments, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the San Francisco County Transportation Authority, the Transportation Authority of Marin, and the Sonoma County Transportation and Climate Protection Authority.

  Non-governmental organizations include the Bay Area Climate Collaborative; the EV Communities Alliance; CityCar Share, a non-profit vehicle-sharing program; Plug-in America, an electric vehicle advocate; and Bay Area Clean Cities Coalitions, promoters of electric vehicle use in fleets.

  Cities taking part include San Francisco, San Jose, Oakland, and Berkeley, along with Marin County.

  PEVCC members from private industry include the Silicon Valley Leadership Group; Kleiner Perkins Caulfield Byers, a leading venture fund in Silicon Valley; Itron, a leader in Smart Grid infrastructure and services; Coulomb Technology, manufacturer of PEV technology; ECOtality, a clean energy technology company; electric-vehicle manufacturer Tesla; and Pacific Gas & Electric, the area’s local utility.

• $200,000 to the Sacramento Area Council of Governments. The will allow the council, the project’s lead entity, to create the “Capital Area Plug-in Electric Vehicle Coordinating Council (CAPEVCC).” The council will include public and private leaders from counties, cities, public agencies, community organizations, private industry, higher education, and utilities. The council will help promote the use of plug-in electric vehicles in the Sacramento area and create a set of consistent best management practices to simplify their introduction.

  SACOG will lead the coordinating council with support from the non-profit association Valley Vision, which will also provide match funding of $47,420. Other core members of council include the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District; the Greater Sacramento Regional Clean Air Coalition (Clean Cities); the Yolo/Solano Air Quality Management District; the University of California, Davis; Sacramento County and the cities of Sacramento, Citrus Heights, West Sacramento, Folsom, and Elk Grove; the local utilities Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), Roseville Electric, and Pacific Gas & Electric; and the John L. Sullivan Automotive Group.

  The Capital Area Region includes 22 cities in El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.

Assembly Bill 118 (Núñez, Chapter 750, Statutes of 2007) created the California Energy Commission’s Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program. The statute, amended by Assembly Bill 109 (Núñez, Chapter 313, Statutes of 2008), authorizes the Energy Commission to develop and deploy alternative and renewable fuels and advanced transportation technologies to help achieve the state’s climate change policies. Under the statutes, the Energy Commission invests nearly $100 million a year in a variety of projects, leveraging existing federal, state and local funding and private investments in the process.