Renewable Energy is Not Causing Energy Cost Spikes, Coal is Washington, D.C. – Today, Donald Trump published on Truth Social that “Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES IN ELECTRICITY AND ENERGY COSTS.” This is false.   Energy Innovation reported that “states with the largest increases in wind and …

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SEATTLE, Wash. – Zonar, a leader in commercial vehicle fleet health and safety, today announced the launch of Zonar Ignition, a next-generation cloud-based fleet management platform designed to replace the industry’s fragmented legacy systems with unified, real-time insights. Coming nine months after Zonar’s merger with GPS Trackit, Ignition reflects the company’s accelerated pace of innovation and focus on delivering joint value to customers.

Zonar Ignition helps fleets maximize uptime, reduce costs and respond to challenges faster through three core features that define a modern fleet management platform:

Integration-Ready: Built on a flexible framework, the cloud-based Ignition platform seamlessly integrates Zonar data with third-party data sources. An open API combined with the ability to build sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) modules, Zonar provides its customers with a more customizable and efficient experience.

One Screen, Total Control: Ignition consolidates and displays all crucial fleet and third-party data on one screen. A single-pane-of-glass view allows operators to assess the status of vehicles, drivers, and assets in real time on a single high-resolution map, rather than navigating through tabs to collect insights to make data-driven decisions.
Actionable Insights, Real-Time Results: Through Zonar’s market-leading hardware, Ignition aggregates data from its TCU hardware, compliance solutions, driver behavior monitoring systems and third-party systems into personalized reports. Interactive dashboards surface key performance indicators, including fuel usage, route efficiency and safety events, and enable drill-downs that drive continuous operational improvements. More than 30 detailed reports and personalized dashboards are available. From real-time KPIs and granular driver and vehicle data, to live alerts on speeding, idling, or off-route activity, Ignition diagnostics help improve safety and efficiency while increasing uptime with scheduled maintenance and preemptive alerts.

“Whether it’s a school bus, sanitation truck or specialized utility vehicle, for too long fleet managers have had to choose between clunky workflows or unreliable data when managing drivers, vehicles and other critical business assets,” said Charles Kriete, CEO, Zonar. “We saw a clear need for something faster, smarter and more efficient. With Ignition, we’ve brought together the best of Zonar and GPS Trackit to give fleets a single window into unified workflows and manage all aspects of vehicles, drivers and assets. This approach helps derisk operations and delivers actionable analytics through actionable intelligence. This platform is not just for our current customers, but for any fleet looking for a better, more connected way to run their operations.”

The launch of Zonar Ignition underscores the company’s role as both a trusted partner and an innovator in fleet technology. A pivotal step in Zonar’s ongoing mission to help fleets operate at their highest potential, Ignition’s platform is designed to meet today’s operational demands and evolve with future transportation challenges.

The first major milestone since Zonar’s merger with GPS Trackit on December 3, 2024, Zonar Ignition signals the combined company’s ability to innovate quickly and deliver value at scale. By uniting Zonar’s telematics expertise with GPS Trackit’s scalable platform, the company is accelerating cloud-based fleet visibility, analytics, and AI-driven insights. Ignition also integrates with Zonar’s proprietary technologies, including EVIR for electronic inspections, CARB tools for emissions compliance, Z Pass for student rider visibility, and Zonar Coach for driver safety coaching, giving fleets a single platform to optimize operations, improve safety, and reduce costs.

For the latest updates and announcements, follow Zonar on LinkedIn.

About Zonar
Zonar (https://www.zonarsystems.com/) is the trusted leader in proven fleet management solutions for pupil transportation, small-to mid-sized businesses, enterprise fleets, and public sector organizations across the Americas. The Zonar mission is to stand by its customers as a partner to ensure fleets run better, safer and more efficiently. Whatever the fleet size, customers rely on Zonar to help solve real-word problems. Headquartered in Seattle, Zonar has been delivering fleet management solutions to its customers for more than 20 years. Zonar has operations in West Chicago and Cincinnati. Available 24/7, reach Zonar at info@zonarsystems.com or (877) 843-3847.

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Washington, D.C. – According to reporting, the Environmental Protection Agency plans to rescind all $7 billion of Solar For All grants.   The Solar For All grant was passed into law as part of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022 to expand access to affordable and reliable solar energy to low-income regions across the country. 60 projects have been …

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The “Walking School Bus” program at Regal Elementary in Spokane, Washington, helps students with attendance and promotes trust between the children and school staff, reported KXLY News.

The program pairs teachers and volunteers with students who need help getting to school. The volunteers walk door to door, collecting students and walking them safely to school each day.

According to the article, the program was initiated with the aim of helping students with attendance problems. Tony Debari, a counselor at the school, said that transportation issues often keep students from attending school.

Debari said the program has shown clear results, with 88 percent of students participating with the Walking School Bus having improved their attendance. Most participants now miss nine or fewer days per year.

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Related: Study: School Buses Can Reduce Kindergarten Absenteeism

School staff also noticed that students are more excited about school and that morning walks have become a positive start to each day. The Walking School Bus runs Monday through Friday with volunteers maintaining consistent routes and schedules.

According to the news report, the program not only helps families who struggle to get their children to school consistently but also to build relationships and increase trust between students and staff.

The school reportedly plans to expand the program next year. The expansion could help more students and families who could benefit from transportation and community support.

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Related: Walking Programs Save Some Students Left Without School Buses
Related: Florida Fathers and Father Figures Join Students for Walking School Bus
Related: Washington State Walking School Bus Program Provides Link to Community Engagement
Related: On the Block

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The following commentary was written by Kelley Trombley, senior manager of state policy at Ceres. See our commentary guidelines for more information.

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This campaign season, the state of Washington was a battleground for energy and climate policy. The pitched fight over Initiative 2117 became one of the most expensive ballot measures in state history, drawing millions of dollars in political funding to each side of the issue, which would have repealed Washington’s Climate Commitment Act to end its nation-leading cap-and-invest system. In its first year alone, the policy has driven $2.2 billion into projects designed to protect the state from the effects of climate change while fighting pollution, but faced opposition from those who argued it hurt the economy. 

Yet it was some of the top employers in the state – and for that matter on the planet – that urged voters to keep the program in place. Amazon, Microsoft, and REI were among the many companies urging a no vote. And in the end, voters agreed, decisively defeating the ballot measure by a wide margin. It turns out that this kind of climate action is actually an economic boon. 

The strong showing of corporate support for the CCA shouldn’t be surprising. Take it from me and my colleagues at Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit that works with businesses and investors across the country on sustainability issues. Over the last decade, leading businesses have increasingly come to recognize that climate and clean energy policies are key economic drivers. Business leaders have rallied to support them – from the federal Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, marking the nation’s largest-ever investment into confronting climate change, to ambitious legislation in states across the U.S., including here in Washington. 

To understand why, just think about what businesses need to prosper. Reliable and affordable electricity to power their operations. Good transportation networks to ensure people and goods can get where they need to be. Infrastructure investment and job growth to bolster local economies. Market-based systems to efficiently solve pressing economywide problems. And, last but not least, a healthy workforce. 

The CCA is delivering all of that.  

By putting a cap on carbon pollution designed to all but eliminate it by 2050, the policy uses basic economic principles to address the challenge and financial risks of climate change. It promises to reduce impacts such as floods, drought, heatwaves, and severe storms that threaten pillars of the economy that businesses depend on, such as infrastructure, facilities, supply chains, and workforces. Not only that, the CCA is also investing in improving and fortifying many of those very things: its revenue is being used to improve and modernize energy and transportation infrastructure, invest in energy efficiency, and protect communities from climate impacts. Repealing it was projected to cost some 45,000 good-paying jobs and do $9 billion in economic damage. 

Businesses understood the CCA is about protecting and strengthening our economic future, one that we are all in together. And voters did too. By voting no, Washington has signaled to companies across the U.S. that it is acting to address a major economic challenge and is investing in solutions that businesses of the future will rely on.  

There’s a lesson here for state policymakers around the country, especially those committed to strengthening their communities as an attractive and reliable place to conduct business. The private sector will continue to seize business opportunities as clean energy investment grows, and states will find broad support when they address the economic imperative to reduce pollution and advance clean power, transportation, and building policies. In Washington, voters made it abundantly clear that their “no” vote wasn’t about just protecting the climate. It was about protecting the economy as well. 

Commentary: Why businesses stood up for Washington state’s cap-and-invest policy is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.