Laura Renger’s foot is on the pedal to accelerate California’s EV revolution.
With more than a third of all electric vehicles in America traveling the freeways of California, the state is ripe for being the center for zero emissions. Case in point: Last year, 20% of new cars sold in the Golden State were electric. But those impressive numbers belie big challenges down the road to meet the state’s mandate of having 100% electric cars by 2035—with heavy trucks following 10 years later. Getting there will require the cooperation of myriad public and private stakeholders—from major utilities and car makers to regulators and community activists. Getting them seated around one table is the job of Laura Renger.
In addition to wrangling disparate forces, Renger’s challenges as executive director of the California Electric Transportation Coalition (CalETC), a nonprofit association promoting the use and advancement of electric vehicles, include advancing the transition to clean electricity in order to power electric vehicles and addressing the need for EV charging that’s available to all citizens. “California is often used as the model for other states,” she says, “and so we have a big responsibility to get it right.”
These days, Renger has her hands full organizing stakeholders around major updates to California’s low-carbon fuel standard—a groundbreaking carbon credit program when it was introduced in 2009 that’s being revised this fall with stricter standards.
Under the program, transportation fuels are graded on a life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions. The grade takes several factors into consideration, such as the production, transport and use of fuels, as well as indirect effects of the emissions. Fuel providers must meet annual benchmarks, either by using lower carbon-intense fuels (thus earning credits) or by purchasing credits from providers who have done so.
“We have this amazing opportunity to make the carbon intensity requirements stronger,” Renger says, “but we have to ensure that a majority of the revenue on the credit sales is reinvested into disadvantaged communities, many of which are overburdened by poor air quality.” Part of that push is building a more equitable EV charging infrastructure.
Many Americans can install EV chargers in their garages, but, Renger points out, it’s not so simple in lower-income communities where garages are not as common and public charging stations can be sparse. “We’ve all heard of communities that are food deserts,” she says. “Well, there are also charging deserts.” Even as the purchase price of EVs is expected to drop, the lack of charging stations puts EV cars out of reach for lower-income families, who stand to benefit most from the long-term savings in fuel and maintenance. “We also need to make public charging affordable,” says Renger, a native Californian.
It’s not easy: Putting NGOs, environmental justice groups, utilities, private companies and policy makers in the same room, literally and metaphorically, requires a Herculean effort and rich experience. But Renger, a lawyer with a strong track record from years of experience in energy and environmental policy for public utilities, is up for the challenge. “What we’re trying to do now is revolutionary,” she says. It’s a transformation that her years of trust-building efforts will help drive. “We’re working to completely decarbonize the economy—not just the electric sector, not just the transportation sector, but the economy at large.”
