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 SANTA BARBARA — The Community Environmental Council (CEC) is proud to announce a new collaboration with the California Climate Action Corps (CalCAC) to engage youth in efforts to make electric vehicles more accessible to low-income communities.
With support through CalCAC’s Summer Program, CEC worked with two other climate-focused organizations in the state – Ecology Action and Regeneración – Pájaro Valley Climate Action – to select six Electric Vehicle Equity Fellows from a pool of applicants. CalCAC, the country’s first state-level climate service corps, empowers individuals in California to serve, volunteer, and take concrete climate action in their own communities. Statewide, there are 236 fellows across 78 host partners in California.
CEC’s fellows are UCSB students Sarah Olsen and Tyler Barton. They are receiving on-the-ground experience providing electric vehicle purchase guidance to communities across the tri-county region of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. This one-on-one purchase guidance will assist low-income residents through the entire process of getting behind the wheel of an Electric Vehicle – from exploring the available models and EV charging choices to budgeting and applying for state and local rebates and incentives. They even provide support through the dealership experience.
Discussing why she applied, Olsen noted “Climate change is a pervasive global issue that will ultimately be up to my generation to face.”
Barton spoke to what he has gained from the experience: “CalCAC has given me the opportunity to understand more of the barriers of climate mitigation and the creative ways that we can find solutions. This project works to give everyone the ability to utilize reliable mobility that doesn’t harm the health of their communities or planet.”
In exchange for high-level professional development, the fellows are supporting statewide efforts to make electric vehicles more accessible to all demographics and income levels in order to reduce emissions in our most burdened communities. This is a critical piece toward California reaching its goal to have all new passenger car and truck sales in the state be all-electric by 2035 and statewide carbon neutrality by 2045.
Other state programs are also supporting efforts to increase local capacity for electric vehicles. In 2020, CEC and their Electric Drive 805 partners secured a total of $7.1 million through the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project to build new charging stations throughout the tri-counties. Equity is important in this build out, and at least $2.5 million of the funding is dedicated to setting up infrastructure within frontline communities. There are currently 1,800 charging stations, up by 800 since 2019.
Jennifer Hernández, Energy and Climate Program Associate, shares, “CEC is prioritizing transportation justice as a way to ensure the communities most impacted by climate change are included as we transition to zero-emission transportation.” As the person guiding fellowship activities at CEC, she noted the critical nature of these types of training opportunities, “These young leaders are already thinking critically about how to meaningfully implement mobility equity, and they will be able to carry this work forward into their future careers and community work.”
Learn more at:
https://www.evsforeveryone.org/
https://www.evsparatodos.org/
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