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Yesterday, the state of California and leading energy independence company, Better Place announced that California will take a giant step in becoming free from gas-emitting cars. In a press conference held in San Francisco City Hall, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with the Mayors of San Francisco, San Jose and Oakland, joined together with the Bay Area Council, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, and Better Place of Palo Alto publicized their plan to give the state a completive advantage in sustainable transportation and green job growth.

The press release has more:

In conjunction with the news, Better Place, the world’s leading sustainability mobility operator, announced that it would enter the US market with California as its first state, beginning in the Bay Area. Better Place will work a similar infrastructure investment model as it has in Israel, Denmark and Australia. Network planning and permitting will begin in January 2009 with infrastructure deployment beginning in 2010.

Mass market availability of electric cars is targeted for 2012, and Better Place estimates the network investment in the Bay Area will total $1 billion when the system is fully deployed. The Better Place model is an open network model built on industry standards, allowing for fixed battery and battery exchange electric vehicles to operate on the network.

“At Better Place, we believe that the systemic issues facing our country today – climate change, economic downturn and the ongoing geopolitical struggle between energy rich and energy poor nations – all tie back to our addiction to oil,” said Shai Agassi, Founder and CEO, Better Place. “We believe the successful solution includes a confluence of leadership involving California’s strength in technology and innovation coupled with Michigan’s automotive manufacturing might, with the right policy and national project leadership from Washington. We are grateful for the support from Governor Schwarzenegger, whose policies have enabled this ‘blue ocean’ opportunity. If we tackle these issues through an integrated approach among cities, states and nations, the world wins.”

Also today, the region’s two largest associations – the Bay Area Council and Silicon Valley Leadership Group – announced their commitment to accelerating the change from a carbon-based economy to a low carbon economy. Both groups committed to working with their memberships to accelerate action on climate change and view the move to sustainable transportation as a critical first step.

“The green technology industry is going to boom, and it is our job is to ensure it booms here, in the Bay Area and California,” said Jim Wunderman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bay Area Council. “We have the venture capital, we have the research universities, we have management talent, and, perhaps most importantly, we have the visionary elected leaders gathered here today to clear the field for green tech companies, like Better Place, with progressive public policy.”

“As one of the region's leading business associations, the Silicon Valley Leadership Group is strongly committed to accelerating action on climate change and we view the move to sustainable transportation as a critical step forward for the region. As part of our commitment, the Leadership Group will continue to help accelerate commercialization of EV technology and leading-edge member companies such as Akeena Solar will continue to develop affordable solar energy solutions to meet the growing demand for clean energy,” said Barry Cinnamon, Board Member, Silicon Valley Leadership Group. “Increasing the number of electric vehicles and the use of clean energy are two of the 10 action areas in our Bay Area Climate Change Compact, which we have developed in partnership with the 3 Mayors here today as well as the four regional agencies -- ABAG, BAAQMD BCDC, and MTC. We look forward to continuing our work to develop solutions to the climate crisis with our many public and private sector partners across the Bay Area.”

“We must invest in the future -- now. And Better Place and its role in establishing and building the EV infrastructure necessary to transform the automotive industry and embrace 21st century technology is the best kind of investment we can make,” said Alan Salzman, CEO and Managing Partner, VantagePoint Venture Partners. “As a global leader in CleanTech investing, VantagePoint Venture Partners is dedicated to working with innovative entrepreneurial companies like Better Place and has committed the resources of our Firm, our network, and our partners so that Californians and others can benefit from a re-energized, electric auto industry."

“While we expect oil prices to remain low in the short term, we believe this environment creates an even more profitable window of opportunity over the long term to invest in green infrastructure projects like Better Place before oil returns to historic highs,” said Idan Ofer, Chairman of Better Place and Chairman of Israel Corp., which has a joint venture with Chinese automobile manufacturer, Chery Corp. “We fundamentally believe that the entire auto industry will switch to electric cars when the environmental cost of producing polluting gas cars has an even greater impact on their bottom line.”

California now joins Israel, Denmark and Australia as the world’s leaders in seeking to reduce their dependence on oil.