Meredith Alexander, works with Hua Nani Partners. Formerly Policy Director with CALSTART

Title

You can’t drive what you can’t charge: unique infrastructure policy needs for commercial electric vehicles & the critical role of utilities

Time

1:40pm - 3:00pm

Location

1605 Tilia, Room 1103, West Village

Abstract

In the policy arena, zero-emission vehicle sales mandates such as the Advanced Clean Cars and Advanced Clean Trucks rules are the heavy hitters and have received a great deal of well-deserved media attention. Yet, infrastructure policy is the much more complex and yet less “headline grabbing” policy area. The electric infrastructure required to support commercial battery electric vehicles (EVs) can be expensive and challenging to build, and yet, the benefits of commercial EVs for air quality and greenhouse gas emissions are unmatched. This seminar will focus on the critical role that electric utilities and their regulatory agencies play in transitioning medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets to build out the capacity these vehicles need, and also to design electric rates that ensure that charging an EV is cheaper than buying diesel or gasoline.

Biographical Sketch

Meredith Alexander (Younghein) has dedicated nearly twenty years to developing and advancing climate, energy and transportation policy. Trained as an environmental attorney, Meredith joins Hua Nani Partners as a Principal, expanding HNP’s support for philanthropies, governments and NGOs to tackle climate change by crafting creative policy tools and private sector strategies and solutions. Prior to joining Hua Nani, Meredith led successful clean transportation policy campaigns in California, the Northwest and Northeast as CALSTART’s Policy Director, where she focused on Legislative and Regulatory Affairs as well as helping to shape effective utility programs to support commercial electric vehicles. Meredith spent many years in public service, including Government Affairs for the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) and the California Public Utilities Commission. She has worked on milestone climate, water and energy legislation and program development. She was first appointed by Governor Brown to serve at the California Environmental Protection Agency. Meredith holds a J.D. and environmental law certificate from Lewis & Clark Law School and a bachelors in Environmental Policy from Tulane University.