“I believe that if we’re going to clean up the transportation sector, then it has to start everywhere. We can’t rely on early adopters anymore,” said Kelly Yearick, program manager at Forth. “And I think rural communities have just as much, if not more, to benefit from electric transportation.”

The small town of Hood River, Ore., has decided that it will participate in a new pilot project that will launch a plug-in electric car-share program, which is a relatively unusual thing for rural jurisdictions.