Climate Action Plan promotes electric vehicle use
St. Louis Park to install charging stations in parking lots
Electric charging stations are to be installed in St. Louis Park at several locations. The charging station at Lunds and Byerly’s is the first of many stations in metro area.
November 5, 2018
St. Louis Park will be installing more electric vehicle chargers as part of the student influenced Climate Action Plan, according to senior Katie Christiansen, president of the Roots and Shoots environmental club.
“Right now, St. Louis Park has the ones over in city hall, and one of the initiatives in the Climate Action Plan is to put more (in),” Christiansen said. “I don’t think they have decided where yet, but as we work to develop some of those resources that are with the Climate Action Plan, I’m sure they will lay out more.”
According to Shannon Pinc, the St. Louis Park environment and sustainability coordinator, a law is being formed which will require new parking lot construction to include electric vehicle (EV) chargers.
“The planning department, in partnership with the planning commission, have written a draft Electric Vehicle Equipment Ordinance that requires certain projects to include EV servicing equipment,” Pinc said. “City parking projects will also be required to comply with the ordinance once it is adopted.”
Having electric vehicle chargers in St. Louis Park helps decrease the city’s carbon emissions, Christiansen said.
“A lot of those goals in the Climate Action Plan revolve around reducing vehicle emissions, so by promoting the use of electric vehicles in St. Louis Park, we work towards the goals of reducing our greenhouse gas emissions,” Christiansen said.
Pinc said the new piece of legislation will advocate for increased electric vehicle usage.
“This ordinance will help promote and support EV infrastructure so that encouraging EV car purchases and use will be easier,” Pinc said.
According to Christiansen, students at Park have done a great job taking initiative on environmental dilemmas.
“The Climate Action Plan was initiated by St. Louis Park students and was kind of carried through and even written with student input,” Christiansen said. “It is really cool to see students taking leadership on climate issues and by extension the electric vehicle usage.”
Electric vehicle chargers will be installed around the city throughout 2019, in accordance with the Climate Action Plan.
