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The US Green Vehicle Council is advocating a "Cash for EV Retrofit"
program that proposes to incentivize  with cash subsidies or
rebates by local and federal agencies (i.e., AQMD, DOE, DOL, etc) 
to convert gas  guzzlers to electric vehicles in order to meet
California AB 32 mandate.  This program will:
• Save commuters money, especially if gas prices reach $5/gal;
• Win our energy independence from imported oil:
• Insure our National Security;
• Reduce our international trade deficit where 1/3+ is for oil
import;
• Clean our air we breathe to prevent asthma in our children and
cancer in our elderly;
  Prevent a global food crisis caused by the rising cost of oil for
transportation and fertilizer,etc;
• Reduce our carbon footprint; and
• Empower small EV technician and specialist to create local jobs
and small businesses, especially our Veterans that sacrifices
American blood for oil.   

President Obama established a goal of purchasing 1 million new
electric vehicles on the road by 2015 by governmental agencies and
consumers, primarily focused on vehicles made by large automakers,
in order to revive the auto industry and save jobs.  USGVC believes
that we must develop a comprehensive strategy to include the
retrofitting of the existing 35 million vehicles in California to
accelerate the EV Evolution.
 
USGVC is proposing to retrofit 1 million ICE Clunkers to EVs by
2015, if proper incentives are available today.

Currently, the Cleantech institute has provided training in EV
Technicians  in California that is  funded by the workforce
investment board.  We are training our returning veterans to become
EV Conversion specialists to reduce our addiction to imported oil
in order to insure our National Security.   

There are over 500 million internal combustion engine (ICE)
vehicles operating n the US today, approximately 1.5 vehicles per
person in the U.S.  Unless we have a program to not only purchase
brand new electric vehicles, but to create a network of Green
Vehicle Conversion Centers, we are not addressing the issue of
climate change and meeting California’s AB 32 mandate.

I recommend that ARB pursue an aggressive Cash for EV Conversion
Program.