The Longmont City Council has set ambitious targets to electrify transportation through its new GoEV Resolution. Adopted Sept. 28, the electric vehicle initiative sets goals for the city fleet, public transportation, micro-mobility vehicles, taxis and ride-share companies, and all passenger vehicles in the community. [view the September 28, 2021 City Council packet for R-2021-102]

With the resolution, Longmont joins Fort Collins, Boulder County, Denver, City of Boulder, Summit County, City of Golden, and the Town of Avon in becoming a GoEV City. All these communities have committed to move to 100% zero-emission transportation as a key strategy to reduce air pollution, protect the climate, and save people money on transportation.

Local leadership from cities like Longmont will be crucial for Colorado to realize its vision of electrifying all vehicles in the state by 2050, as articulated in the 2020 Colorado EV plan.

Longmont has set an example in transportation by converting the municipal trash fleet to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) powered solely by methane from the City’s wastewater treatment plant, installing five (5) dual-port public charging stations, purchasing nineteen (19) battery electric vehicles (BEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV), and working with regional partners to advance the vehicle electrification effort.

In 2020, the city created an Equitable Carbon-Free Transportation Roadmap with goals for city government, the private sector, and the community. The purpose of this Roadmap is to pull together the different City equity and climate action plans related to the transportation sector to create one coordinated action plan with expanded steps to reach the City’s adopted goal.

”The electrification of our transportation sector is a key component in meeting the City’s climate targets and improving the overall air quality on the Front Range,” said Lisa Knoblauch, Longmont’s sustainability program manager. “It will be critical to ensure this transition is done equitably, allowing all members of our community to have affordable and convenient access to electric vehicles and other forms of electrified transportation that result in cleaner air, greater connectivity to services and transportation modes, safer transportation systems, and new job opportunities.”

The GoEV Cities and Counties campaign is a joint effort of SWEEP, CLEER, CoPIRG, Conservation Colorado, and the Sierra Club. The effort is modeled after the Ready For 100 campaign, in which more than 180 local governments in the U.S. have committed to obtaining 100% renewable energy no later than 2050. Refer to the GoEV City policy toolkit: goevcity.org/policy-toolkit.