San Francisco Office of the Mayor

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco inaugurates plug-in charging stations in front of City Hall on Wednesday.

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco took to blogging Wednesday at Gas 2.0 — on the occasion of his city’s installation of electric-vehicle charging stations in front of San Francisco City Hall.

Mr. Newsom wrote:

Imagine cars with no tailpipes and no direct carbon emissions into our atmosphere — powered by an electrical energy system getting cleaner by the year through Renewable Portfolio Standards in effect in California and across the nation — creating hundreds of thousands of new green jobs.

More than a decade ago, I was one of the original owners of the EV1, an electric vehicle produced by General Motors (G.M.). When G.M. discontinued the series and reclaimed all of the EV1s, it was a major setback for the American car industry. Instead of leading the charge to create a new generation of vehicles — America fell behind.

Last year we woke up. Four dollar a gallon gas was the catalyst. The price has gone down since the spike, but I think most Americans understand we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and one of the keys is more fuel-efficient vehicles.

As the folks at Gas 2.0 report, the plug-in stations are intended for the plug-in electric vehicles already in San Francisco’s municipal fleet, as well as plug-in hybrids available through two car-sharing companies in the area: City CarShare and Zipcar.

The move comes on the heels of a collective agreement reached by the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose last November, pledging to make the Bay Area the “electric vehicle capital of the U.S.”

February 19, 2009,

By Tom Zeller Jr.