Tesla electric vehicles charge in a lot near the Las Vegas Convention Center’s South Hall Wednesday, June 26, 2024.
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 | 5:40 p.m.
Worsening climate change, $15.4 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding for electric infrastructure and tax credits for purchasing electric vehicles will push more buyers toward EVs, one expert said at a Las Vegas event today hosted by an environmental group.
“We think we’re going to very quickly reach a tipping point where consumers recognize that it just makes more sense for them to drive electric cars, trucks and SUVS,” said David Kieve, president of EDF Action, the advocacy partner of the Environmental Defense Fund.
The Environmental Defense Fund, a global environmental nonprofit that focuses on public policy and legal action, drew together experts from the electric vehicle industry, public health and local officials for its summit at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Rebates are $7,500 for new vehicles and $4,000 for used.
“This is exactly how we’re supposed to use our tax code, to incentivize the type of behavior we want to see,” Kieve said. “And it’s going to work… They’re going to save more money the more they drive them, and they’re not going to have to fill up their gas tank in 110-degree heat, which, by the way, also contributes to climate change and makes it hotter and hotter.”
Clark County Commissioner William McCurdy said the county is looking for ways to expand public transportation.
“Stay tuned,” McCurdy said at the event. “The plan is already in place that addresses… fleet reduction and fleet increases in electric vehicles. We’re also talking about how we’re going to modernize our communities in a way that makes them more energy efficient.”
Dr. Joanne Leovy, a local family physician and founder of Nevada Clinicians for Climate Action, said she became an advocate for electric vehicles because about 30% of greenhouse gases in Nevada stem from transportation, according to the Nevada Division of Environmental Protections.
“We, along with the rest of the world, need to rapidly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid unlivable heat waves and drought here in Southern Nevada,” Leovy said. “Vehicle tailpipes and gas pumps for fueling vehicles also release many other health harming chemicals… heat like we have today increased levels of many of these pollutants.”
She said many people know about the link between air pollution and lung disease, but fewer know about the connection to cancel, cardiovascular deaths, reduced fertility and premature births.
Leovy cited a Princeton University study that estimated transitioning to nonpolluting transportation could save $8.3 billion in health care costs in Nevada by 2050.
“Infants, children, people with existing chronic diseases and people living in predominantly low-income neighborhoods near highways have especially high risks of harm,” Leovy said. “Most of my clinical day is spent helping patients from these frontline neighborhoods manage these chronic diseases.”
Hunter Stern, assistant business manager for International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers 1245, said his branch trains about 2,250 electricians to install and maintain electric chargers and other infrastructure each year, but the chapter is equipped to train more than double that number if demand arises.
“We are well on our way to making Nevada a leading state in transportation electrification,” Stern said.
