Washington State to receive $1.08 billion for transportation projects: Electric vehicle infrastructure included but reservations persist in Yakima – KIMA CBS 29

YAKIMA – Washington State is going to be receiving $1.08 billion next year to help with transportation projects including bridges, highways and more.

The funding will also be used to repair bridges, highways and other transportation projects across the state.

However, as the state continues to move forward with their plans to reduce gas emissions, there are some reserves here in Yakima.

Local leaders say with inflation, the current price of gas and just the overall more expensive price tag on hybrid and electric, it’s not practical for a majority of people here in the valley to have the means to afford to switch to electric cars in the coming years.

Additionally, Washington State has set a goal to reduce 95% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

“Trucks and buses really have an out proportioned influence on emissions. If you look at the transportation sector alone, trucks and buses are only about 10% of the vehicles on the road, but they account for 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector, about 60% of the nitrogen dioxide emissions and about half of all the particulate emissions,” said Tom Brotherton, Senior Director for Calstart.

Calstart officials say they’re focusing on box trucks to agriculture equipment and everything in between.

Although this would be a decades long transition; County Commissioner Amanda McKinney says the switch is unrealistic for rural areas like Yakima.

“You’re talking about several hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase a new vehicle. That is a capital investment that takes many farming communities – you know, taking a farmer years and years to try and save up for and especially again, with high interest rates, being able to actually cash flow and finance something so expensive it’s a mood point. It’s laughable actually to most people that are small business owners,” McKinney said.

Despite reservations, electric batteries are already becoming a reality in our state.

Fire officials say Redmond and Bellevue have recently invested in an electric fire truck with the help of a grant from the Department of Ecology.

West Valley Fire Chief Nathan Craig says he briefly entertained the idea after hearing about the grant opportunity, but because of various concerns says it’s not something they’re going to be transitioning to anytime soon.

“This truck right here is 20 years old. How many batteries would I have to buy in 20 years? You know, is it going to be a thing where in 10 years I have to replace the batteries and that’s a $400,000 expense because the trucks $2 million to begin with? There’s a lot of factors that go into it as well as infrastructure,” Craig said.

He says there’s the ability in their capital improvement plan to look at the possibility of adding charging stations in their bay, but they haven’t moved forward with it as of now.