What
is CalSTEP?
The California Secure Transportation Energy Partnership, known as “CalSTEP”, is made up of leaders from business, government, academia, and the non-profit sectors who, for 18 months, worked together in a collaborative process to develop a pro-business, comprehensive California Action Plan to significantly increase transportation energy efficiency and fuel diversity while growing the economy and improving the environment.
Why Now, and Why California?
With steadily increasing oil consumption, and with an increasing percentage of that oil coming from foreign sources, California has much to gain from action to reverse these trends, including reduced dependence on an increasingly volatile and unstable world oil market. Rather than waiting for federal action, CalSTEP’s vision builds off of the state’s historic leadership on transportation and related issues, including recent actions by the Governor and others, to spur the state to enact a comprehensive set of transportation energy policies, thereby maximizing statewide benefits.
CalSTEP’s Goals
CalSTEP has adopted the tough but cost-effective and technologically feasible goals approved by both the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Specifically, CalSTEP seeks to achieve:
A sustainable reduction in the overall on-road petroleum fuel consumption in California to at least 15 percent below 2003 levels by 2020 while increasing the proportion of alternative transportation fuels in the state to at least 20 percent of total on-road transportation fuel demand.
With goals of this magnitude, only a comprehensive set of actions will enable the state to meet and sustain them.
Ten Actions for Success
CalSTEP’s ten-point Action Plan outlines just such a comprehensive set of actions. It defines strategies and targets in three distinct and complementary areas:
- Diversifying vehicular fuels;
- Applying smart growth and transit; and
- Improving vehicular efficiency
Within each of these areas, actions are broken down into two categories: Primary and Supporting. The three primary actions account for the bulk of the benefits in terms of reducing petroleum use and cutting global warming emissions. The supporting actions help achieve the goals, support state industry to create solutions and opportunities, and provide additional economic benefits.
Smart and Steady Steps Forward
With the release of its ten-point Action Plan, CalSTEP held a press conference with CalSTEP Partners, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, and Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee to launch the plan’s implementation. The press conference was hosted by CalSTEP Partner Beverly Scott at the Sacramento Regional Transit District. Nunez and Blakeslee highlighted the bipartisan nature of the Action Plan and of energy security in general, while also highlighting legislation that they are pursuing in 2007 that is in alignment with the goals of the Action Plan. Click here to view the press release for this press conference, and click here to view photos from the event.
As CalSTEP moves ahead with this implementation phase, the CalSTEP partners are looking for others in the legislature who are committed to CalSTEP’s framework, goals, and the Action Plan’s implementation. For more information on how to become a part of this process, contact Matt Peak at (626) 744-5601.
