Register now for the Transportation & Innovation Expo April 28 in Madison with our co-hosts Alliant Energy, the City of Madison & Madison Gas & Electric! Our sustainable transportation, infrastructure, technology and fleet vehicle conference & expo is the must-attend event of the year. Attend breakout sessions to hear from industry experts how sustainable transportation choices can reduce emissions and improve your bottom line. Click here for our agenda & click here for our impressive lineup of speakers. Check out a variety of sustainable vehicles & pieces of equipment in the 70,000+-square-foot exhibit hall. Click here for our growing list of vehicle displays. Get behind the wheel of an electric vehicle during the ride and drive. Join us for a networking reception in the Expo Hall Wednesday evening, included with your registration. Click here for sponsorship & exhibit booth options!

Register now for the Festival event! Festival Foods in Somers will be having a Drive Electric Earth Day (DEED) celebration. DEED is presented nationally by Plug In America, the Electric Vehicle Association, the Sierra Club, and EVHybridNoire, and this local event is presented by Drive $mart Wisconsin. Local EV owners and EV advocates will be providing information about battery electric vehicles (BEV), hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV).

The U.S. EPA anticipates it will begin accepting applications for Clean School Bus Rebates in late April 2022. The EPA is recommending school districts take steps now to prepare to apply for the program and other future funding opportunities. Details on their recommendations can be found at the link below.

In a unanimous vote of 31-0 (2 not voting), the State Senate voted against concurrence in the Assembly amended version of the EV charging bill, SB 573. The bill aimed to define who can provide EV charging services, how customers will pay for it, and the electricity source for the chargers. Wisconsin law does not have specific guidance on EV charging, so non-utility-owned EV charging stations set their fees on a per-minute basis, not on the amount of energy delivered. This policy results in owners of slower charging vehicles paying more for power than owners of fast charging vehicles. SB 573 would have allowed businesses to set fees based on the amount of electricity used, but several provisions to the bill concerned clean energy advocates.

Read Lorrie Lisek's monthly column in The Kenosha News & other Lee Enterprises newspapers across Wisconsin.

Ozinga Energy, headquartered in Mokena, Illinois, first joined Wisconsin Clean Cities in 2016. Established in 1928 in Evergreen Park, Illinois, as a small coal and coke yard, Ozinga survived the Great Depression and World War II before becoming one of the first ready mix providers in the region. For four generations, Ozinga has continuously expanded its product and service offerings to faithfully meet the needs of builders throughout Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan and South Florida while holding to its longstanding commitment to provide it all at a fair price.

Ethanol is a renewable fuel made from corn and various other plant materials collectively known as “biomass”. The use of ethanol is widespread, with more than 95 percent of U.S. gasoline containing ethanol in a low-level blend to oxygenate the fuel and reduce air pollution. Ethanol is also available as E85, a high-level ethanol blend containing 51 percent to 83 percent ethanol, depending on geography and season. The blend can be used in flexible fuel vehicles which have an internal combustion engine and run on either E85 or gasoline. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, there are more than 8 million FFVs on U.S. roads today.