Kane County prepares for future without gas cars

When Kane County Board member Mike Donahue recently turned on his TV to watch football, he had an unexpected aha moment. On came a commercial for the new Nissan Leaf electric vehicle that portrayed a world where everything from alarm clocks to iPods ran on gas. The commercial closes with a simple thought. What if everything, including cars, didn’t use gas?

“When I see that it makes me very happy,” Donahue said. “It energizes me. When you think about what really is behind that television commercial is billions of dollars of corporate investment. Electric vehicles are headed for the mainstream of America.”

For Donahue, that commercial signaled true relevance for the new county work group he is leading. That work group of county board members, local municipal officials and business leaders is exploring a new law to regulate, guide and encourage the presence of electric vehicles in Kane County. The law will provide a framework to cast the county as a haven for owners of electric vehicles who need to charge their batteries while they live, work and spend money in the county.

Donahue envisions charging stations peppering the county in both public and private parking areas. He also sees a future where batteries are changed in electric vehicles just as easy as pulling into a Jiffy Lube, or perhaps a Jiffy Charge. There’s reason to buy into Donahue’s vision. He’s the owner of Midwest Wind Energy, a wind farm development company. Alternative energy is what puts bread on his table.

Early questions for Donahue’s committee include how to police the misuse of charging stations by nonelectric cars and whether or not to limit the amount of time any one vehicle can use a charging station. Such charging stations are expected to be relatively limited compared to other parking spaces. Donahue wants to find a balance between making the charging stations attractive enough that developers want to include them in new construction without scaring development away with the added costs of the extra infrastructure.

Donahue’s committee is sorting through about 25 pages of potential regulations on everything from signage to whether or not a car must be actually charging to park in a charge station.

The proposed regulations will eventually need approval from the full county board before they become law.