When the engine in one of Via Mobility’s buses blew up last summer, the Boulder-based transportation service weighed whether to ditch the vehicle or replace the diesel engine. Via did the Boulder kind of thing — it recycled the bus. And it went electric. Now, The Hop, which circulates between downtown Boulder, the Twenty Ninth Street Mall and the University of Colorado campus, is even more noticeable for what it doesn’t do. “It’s quiet. It has no emissions,” said Frank Bruno, VIA CEO. “And it has a great wrap on the back that says it’s Boulder’s first electric bus.” Via Mobility Services, a nonprofit that contracts with the city of Boulder, Regional Transportation District and others to provide a range of services, wants to electrify more of its fleet. Bruno said Via decided to make the No.15 Hop electric after connecting at a conference with Lightning Systems , a Loveland company that designs and manufactures all-electric power trains for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. “We love it. We’d love to have a bunch of them,” Bruno said of the bus. Gov. Jared Polis’ administration would like to see more electric buses, delivery trucks and vans on Colorado roads, too. Polis signed an executive order in January reaffirming the state’s commitment to increase the number of electric vehicles and expand the network of charging stations across the state. A key change the executive order makes to Colorado’s electric vehicle plan is that state grants to replace older gas- and diesel-fueled trucks and fleet vehicles can be used only for electric vehicles — not newer diesel and propane-fueled vehicles, as originally allowed. The money comes from the state’s nearly $70 million share of the national settlement with Volkswagen over allegations that it modified software to cheat on emissions tests. Reining in vehicle emissions is seen as key to addressing climate change. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported that in 2016, carbon dioxide emissions ...
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RTD’s electric 16th Street Mall buses cost nearly 60% more to operate than diesel coaches
RTD pays nearly 60 percent more per mile to power its electric buses along Denver’s 16th Street Mall as it does its conventional diesel fleet. It’s a price disparity that could slow the transit agency’s embrace of zero-emission technology at a time when the state’s new Democratic governor is pushing to put more electric cars on the road and air quality and climate change have become ever larger topics of conversation in Colorado. “If we want to at some point roll out a larger fleet of electric vehicles, we have to address the high cost of electricity,” said RTD spokeswoman Laurie Huff . In a memo issued in late April to the Regional Transportation District’s board of directors that was obtained by The Denver Post, RTD general manager Dave Genova told the board that “average fuel cost” for the battery-powered MallRide shuttle buses is 73 cents per mile. By contrast, the cost to fuel a “typical 40-foot transit coach” on RTD’s system is 46 cents per mile. Genova pointed at the “demand charge” levied by Xcel Energy as the culprit for the higher cost of running the mall buses, which last year carried nearly 9.5 million passengers up and down 16th Street in downtown Denver. RTD replaced its fleet of compressed natural gas MallRide buses with 36 battery-powered buses in 2017. “Due to existing demand charges, we are paying higher than anticipated costs for charging the shuttles,” Genova wrote to the board. A demand charge is a price tier that electric utilities typically add to commercial and industrial customers’ bills to recover the utility’s capital costs of building a system that can provide enough power to meet peak demand whenever needed. In RTD’s case, the demand charge it pays is based on the mall fleet’s monthly peak electrical usage. In 2018, RTD paid $328,150 in “16th Street Mall-specific electricity bills.” More than $269,000 of that total — or 82 percent — is attributable to demand charges, the agency said. Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz ...
The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Trump teases on 2024 run
Presented by Facebook President Trump Donald Trump Sacha Baron Cohen calls out 'danger of lies, hate and conspiracies' in Golden Globes speech Sorkin uses Abbie Hoffman quote to condemn Capitol violence: Democracy is 'something you do' Ex-Trump aide Pierson planning run for Congress MORE " width="580" height="387" data-delta="1" /> Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. Today is Monday, the start of Women’s History Month! Happy March! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the co-creators. Readers can find us on Twitter @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe! Total U.S. coronavirus deaths as March 1 begins: 513,091. As of this morning, 15 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 7.5 percent is fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker . For better or worse, Donald Trump is back. The former president made his public return on Sunday with a raucous address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), teasing a potential 2024 presidential bid, panning President Biden Joe Biden Biden offers support to union organizing efforts Senate Democrats nix 'Plan B' on minimum wage hike Kavanaugh dismays conservatives by dodging pro-Trump election lawsuits MORE ’s first month in the White House, preaching unity within the GOP ranks, and shortly thereafter attacking those who voted to impeach or convict him, vowing to defeat them all. Multiple times throughout the 90-minute speech, Trump hinted at a third bid for the presidency, drawing massive cheers from the crowd of conservative activists who convened for the three-day gathering in Orlando, Fla. He also insisted he defeated Biden ...
Startup bets on artificial intelligence to counter misinformation
U.K.-based fact checking startup Logically launched a new service Monday aimed at helping governments and NGOs identify and counter online misinformation using a blend of artificial intelligence and human expertise. The Logically Intelligence (LI) platform collects data from tens of thousands of websites and social media platforms then feeds it through an algorithm to identify potentially dangerous content and organize it into narrative groups. “Over the last few years, the phenomenon of mis- and disinformation has firmly taken root, evolved and proliferated, and is increasingly causing real world harm,” Lyric Jain, founder and CEO of Logically, said. “Our intensive focus on combating these untruths has culminated in the development of Logically Intelligence, based on several years of frontline operations fighting against the most egregious attacks on facts and reality.” ADVERTISEMENT The company views the service as a way to help institutions, including social media platforms, to be quicker to react to burgeoning misinformation narratives. Jain told The Hill that he hopes the platform will help information and intelligence sharing in the wake of the deadly insurrection at the Capitol earlier this year, which was planned in publicly-accessible online spaces but was seemingly missed by some authorities. “We think it's a really good time for us to be able to empower… individuals to national governments with something like Logically Intelligence,” he said in an interview, noting that the service could also help identify drivers behind coronavirus vaccine hesitancy. LI provides users with a customizable “Situation Room” that organizes potentially dangerous pieces of content and shows links between them. For example, the platform could chart how a particular concept traveled from a fringe platform to a mainstream social media site, helping the user figure out to block off falsehoods before they proliferate. It also identifies inauthentic accounts and ...
Senate Democrat: Saudi relationship being ‘recalibrated’
A Democratic senator said Sunday that he is "optimistic" that the Biden administration will deliver justice for Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist thought to have been murdered by Saudi agents in 2018. Speaking with CNN's Dana Bash Dana Bash Senate Democrat: Saudi relationship being 'recalibrated' Sunday shows - Trump's reemergence, COVID-19 vaccines and variants dominate Cassidy: Trump won't be GOP nominee in 2024 MORE on "State of the Union," Sen. Chris Coons Chris Andrew Coons Pompeo: Release of Khashoggi report by Biden admin 'reckless' Senate Democrat: Saudi relationship being 'recalibrated' Democrats don't trust GOP on 1/6 commission: 'These people are dangerous' MORE (D-Del.) argued that President Biden Joe Biden Biden offers support to union organizing efforts Senate Democrats nix 'Plan B' on minimum wage hike Kavanaugh dismays conservatives by dodging pro-Trump election lawsuits MORE has taken "bolder" steps against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , who the U.S. intelligence community said last week it believes is responsible for ordering Khashoggi's murder, while adding that the U.S. is "recalibrating" its relationship with Saudi Arabia's government as a whole. "I am optimistic that our role in terms of the war in Yemen, the accountability here for Khashoggi's murder and other ways in which the U.S.-Saudi relationship may change will in fact deliver the accountability that I called for," Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “ We are not yet done with recalibrating the relationship between the United States and the Saudi kingdom," he added. When asked if the crown prince should face consequences for Khashoggi's murder, Coons responded: “I look forward to having ongoing conversations with the administration about this issue, as the U.S.-Saudi relationship is recalibrated.” The senator's comments come after Biden stopped short of ...
