Standing in front of a Tesla Model S electric car in a Chargepoint site in Manhattan today, Heather Leibowitz from Environment New York said, "We are in the middle of a technological revolution that is helping to clean up our air, and reduce our dependence on oil — the rise of electric vehicles." 

Leibowitz made that pronouncement when releasing a new report "Driving Cleaner: More Electric Vehicles Mean Less Pollution." The 37-page report shows that increasing numbers of Americans are driving electric vehicles — more than 190,000 electric vehicles are already on the road and producing far less global warming pollution per mile than their internal combustion-engine counterparts. 

Popular models include plug in hybrids like the Chevy Volt, and fully electric cars like the Nissan Leaf and the Tesla Model S. In the last two years, annual sales of electric cars have increased by 500 percent according to the report. Leibowitz said, "Electric cars are speedy, quiet and quite cool looking, but they really are one of the most important tools to break our dependence on oil, clean our air and improve our health and fight global warming." 

The report argues that electric vehicles could prevent more than 1,758,000 metric tons of climate-changing carbon pollution annually in New York by 2025 — the equivalent of tailpipe pollution from 370,000 of today's cars and trucks.

Ten states — California, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont — require auto manufactures to sell electric vehicles in compliance with the Zero Emission Vehicle program. Georgia and New York offer up to a $5,000 tax credit, and Colorado offers up to a $6,000 tax credit for owning an electric vehicle, and Washington offers a sales tax exemption for electric vehicles.

Attending today's press conference were New York State Senator Brad Holman, and Assembly members Linda B. Rosenthal and David Buchwald. Buchwald recently led a successful effort to continue allowing Tesla to sell its cars in New York State when the company was threatened with a legislative ban.

Buchwald said New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed an executive order in conjunction with the Department of Motor Vehicles banning Tesla from selling directly to consumers. Tesla argues a knowledgeable sales team is needed to sell a new car technology like electric cars.  As most cars are sold through car dealerships, this approach threatened those traditional methods of selling.

The Tesla S Model current price is $70,000, but in a year the company is coming out with a car in the $35,000 tp $40,000 range.