California and Canada are joining forces to advocate for clean technology investments and innovation.
On Tuesday, Tyson Eckerle, deputy director of Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Infrastructure at the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) and David Heurtel, the Québec Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and the Fight against Climate Change, unveiled the first Type C electric school bus manufactured in North America. The bus, which was revealed in Palo Alto, uses technology that has been partially funded by the Québec cap-and-trade program linked to California’s.
Eckerle, joined by Lion Bus President Marc Bédard, announced that GO-Biz will be assisting the manufacturer in establishing a facility in California.
“GO-Biz is proud to partner with Lion Bus to help bring a new electric bus manufacturing facility to California and help meet Gov. Brown’s goal of putting 1.5 million zero emission vehicles on the road by 2025,” said Eckerle in an announcement. “The eLion Type C electric school bus demonstrates that we can dramatically improve the health of our children by deploying zero emission vehicles where it matters most: at home and at our schools.”
By linking their cap-and-trade programs, Québec and California have created the only carbon market in the world developed and operated by sub-national governments in different countries. The market is expected to have a gross domestic product of more than $3.7 trillion, once Ontario joins in 2018.
