The village of Skokie got a little help from Com Ed with its plan to purchase electric vehicles. Officials from the electric utility presented a $45,000 check at Skokie Village Hall on Sept. 3.
Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen said the rebates were offset by the village’s purchase of six new electric vehicles for the police, fire, and public works departments. ComEd CEO and President Gil Quiniones presented the check to Van Dusen. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker attended the ceremony and gave congratulatory remarks.
The village has been replacing its aging gasoline-powered vehicles with electric vehicles as part of its Environmental Sustainability Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35% by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. According to Van Dusen, ComEd’s incentive program will help the village replace 15 or more aging vehicles over the next year.
“More than 1,000 EVs are now on the road in Skokie, including a growing number of our municipal fleet vehicles, putting the village on the way to achieving the ambitious emissions reduction goals outlined in our Environmental Sustainability Plan and paving the way to cleaner air benefitting our entire community,” Van Dusen said.
In December 2023 the village was awarded by ComEd and Metropolitan Mayors Caucus the EV Readiness Bronze Designation, which is used to assist governments reduce barriers to electric vehicle ownership and infrastructure investment, Van Dusen said.
Skokie currently has four public electric charging stations, one of which is ADA accessible near the intersection of Oakton Street and La Crosse Avenue and plans to add four to five in the next year, Van Dusen said. The village also owns five charging ports for its own electric vehicles. The village approved spending $99,000 for two fast charging stations and three wall mount chargers for its police department, one dual bollard station for the village’s public works department and one dual bollard station for the fire department in August.
Van Dusen also credited the state’s involvement in the rebate for the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, which incentives both municipalities and residents to earn a rebate when they purchase an electric vehicle.
In January 2025 the Illinois EPA will open its next cycle of $4,000 rebate applications for new or used electric vehicles. Residents who purchase charging equipment for their homes may receive up to a 30% federal tax credit for the cost of the charging station.
Pritzker said “The Skokie fleet electrification program is a sterling example of what smart, sensible environmental policy looks like… Paired with its already robust public transit infrastructure and ambitious carbon reduction goals, Skokie is an example to other municipalities of how to fight the climate crisis affordably and aggressively.”
Pritzker said when he was first elected in 2019, he declared Illinois as then the newest member of the U.S. Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of 24 governors invested in achieving the goals of the Paris Agreement, a global pledge to attempt to reduce the rise of global temperatures which President Donald Trump removed the United States from in 2017.
“Our goal wasn’t just to catch up (to the Paris Agreement)… as with all things I wanted, and the General Assembly wanted to be a leader in fighting climate change as well as creating new green energy jobs,” Pritzker said.
According to ComEd, the electronic vehicle rebate program launched in February and has incentives the additional of 1,6000 new residential and commercial charging ports and 109 new fleet vehicles, with the program handing out more than $9 million in rebates to customers.
