rF Live Broadcast Brendan Kelley of Clean Fuels Ohio

Last Friday in our studio, we hosted Brendan Kelley, the Drive Electric Ohio Director and team member of Clean Fuels Ohio. Brendan leads the Drive Electric Ohio movement, which includes training, advocating, and educating communities on electric vehicles. 

What are Clean Fuels Ohio?

Clean Fuels Ohio is an organization that was established in 2002 in downtown Columbus. This non-profit organization advocates groups in Ohio for cleaner and more efficient vehicle technologies and reduces barriers to maintain a level playing field. They go by a “fuel neutral’ philosophy, meaning Clean Fuels Ohio does not promote a specific technology or fuel. Instead, Clean Fuels Ohio advocates technology that reduces pollution and results based on each organization that is being advocated. Being Ohio’s only U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Coalition, Clean Fuels Ohio can work with local, state, and federal policymakers. You can learn more about Clean Fuels Ohio and its initiatives on their website listed below.

How Is Our Government Supporting Electric?

“There’s a federal tax credit, it is up to $7,500 dollars, and that depends on the battery size, but almost all-electric vehicles get the full tax credit” says Brendan, “so, that is available for most companies, Tesla and GM are in their phase-out period, they sold enough units. We are also seeing a lot of interest from local governments around supporting infrastructure for electric vehicles.” This goes hand-in-hand, as local businesses and organizations are supported by the credit, in which gets these electric vehicles onto the road faster.

“There is a wave coming,” says Brendan, “we are talking to government entities and say you better get ahead of this wave or get swamped by it.” A lot of electric vehicles are being launched to the public, without local governments creating infrastructure to support electric vehicles (charging stations, etc.), then the wave will collapse on itself. “The biggest push is from utilities,” says Brendan, “the electrification of transportation is the only opportunity that electric companies have to sell more electricity”. AEP Ohio put together a proposal to put charging stations in their service territory. “You see a really big explosion of chargers in Central Ohio because there are rebates available that support this trend”. When companies want to implement an electric fleet, it is best to talk to utility companies first to make sure the fleet can be supported.