Green Options

Setting its sights on the burgeoning US market for car batteries, cutting-edge Swiss zinc-air battery company, ReVolt, has decided to take advantage of Oregon’s generous business tax credits for development of next generation car technologies.

For a city with so many amazing trees, Portland is getting ready to add a bunch of new LEAFs to our streets.

No, that’s not a typo. I’m talking about the LEAF, Nissan’s just-unveiled electric vehicle, which is set to hit dealerships in the fall of 2010. In our quest to be the nation’s leader in electric vehicle infrastructure, usage and development, the Portland region took a big step forward today with the announcement that Nissan and eTec selected Oregon as one of five test markets for the largest deployment of EV’s and the associated charging station network in American history.

“…few opportunities blend economy and sustainability like the electric vehicle does.” 

Editor’s Note: This is Portland Mayor Sam Adams’ first post for Gas 2.0. It’s a direct response to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who posted for us earlier today and said the race to electric vehicle infrastructure “symbolizes what is best about our region and our country.” Mayor Adams will be holding a press conference today at 1:30 PST about this issue. UPDATE: Added video of the event above.

Portland is a great place to live, and it’s a great place to innovate. It could be Oregon’s natural beauty that inspired our long-established commitment to environmental stewardship and conservation, the Beta version of what we now call sustainability.

Couple that innate sense of stewardship with a culture of design, planning, discourse and collaboration and you get Portland — a City ranked by SustainLane (based in San Francisco, no less!) as America’s most sustainable city two years in a row!