Laguna Beach to look at municipal vehicle options to reduce emissions

Laguna Beach will be considering the possibility of replacing vehicles in its municipal fleet with an electrical option, in an effort city officials hope will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

An agenda item brought by Councilman George Weiss called on the city manager to look at the city’s vehicles and infrastructure to make determinations about the cost and ability to acquire electric replacements.

The Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously to support the plan at its meeting on Tuesday night.

City Manager Shohreh Dupuis said the item will have to return to council with a contract for consulting services to proceed with a comprehensive analysis of the city’s municipal fleet, corporation yard and charging facilities.

“I’m supportive of it,” Mayor Bob Whalen said. “I think we should assess the fleet and see what we can do. We already gave staff direction earlier in the year to look at solar opportunities on our buildings, and I think this makes sense. I think this is the direction everything is going to go, so let’s get started.”

Weiss stated during a presentation to the council that the city needs to take inventory of its municipal fleet, including the age of the vehicles, their purpose and the maintenance cost.

He said the city could explore incentive and rebate programs to drive down the cost of fuel-efficient vehicles.

“It also sends a message to our residents that we’re interested in doing our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet local climate goals,” Weiss said.

“As we look at solar power for the city, and for our buildings and parking lots, we could produce local power to generate power for our own fleet and really reduce the cost further.”

Mark McAvoy, director of public works, said the city currently has 19 fuel-efficient vehicles, including 18 hybrid and one electric vehicle. He said those vehicles are utilized by the public works, water quality, community development and police departments.

In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order that bans sales of new gas-powered cars in California by 2035.

Stephen Ellis, a representative for FirstElement Fuel, presented during the public hearing on zero emission vehicles.

Two types of zero emission vehicles are battery electric and fuel cell electric. He said the company currently operates 27 retail hydrogen stations in the state.

Another 32 are on the books to be built in the state. One of those stations is to be built in Laguna Beach.

FirstElement Fuel’s project would provide infrastructure to support fuel cell electric vehicles. The Laguna Beach station would be integrated into the existing Mobil gas station at 104 North Coast Highway.

“We have state of California funding for that specific location and have been going through the permitting process with the city for over a year,” Ellis said.

McAvoy said the project is pending Planning Commission review. If approved, it would be the first retail hydrogen station in town.

Ellis added that FirstElement Fuel’s stations are providing 100% zero carbon hydrogen presently.

“Thank you so much for initiating this important step for Orange County to reduce carbon emissions,” Hoiyin Ip of the Sierra Club said. “Converting [the] city fleet to 100% zero emission vehicles is a practical and impactful thing to do to slow down climate change.”

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