Transportation, energy and environment and clean cities officials from ten northeast states and the District of Columbia announced recently the formation of the Northeast Electric Vehicle Network. The Network will work to bolster economic growth, maintain the region’s leadership in the clean energy economy and reduce the area’s dependence on oil and its emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
The Network's efforts to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast will be supported largely by a nearly $1 million Electric Vehicle Readiness Grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Georgetown University’s Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI). This grant will fund the development of EV key stakeholder collaboration, consumer education and outreach, guidelines for the siting, permitting, and installation of public and private EV charging stations which is viewed as a critical next step in the development of the initiative.
Collaboration through the TCI participating jurisdictions will promote all clean vehicles and fuels and facilitate planning for and the deployment of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and related infrastructure throughout the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states. The group will also work together to attract additional public and private investment in infrastructure for clean vehicles. The private-public partnerships resulting from this collaboration will benefit residents and businesses throughout the entire corridor by reducing the use of petroleum and the emission of greenhouse gases.
Participants in the Northeast Electric Vehicle Network are the District of Columbia, Maryland Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont. The Washington, DC regional effort is headed by Claude Willis, Deputy Director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition (GWRCCC). Willis stated “This is a very important step in developing common standards and best practices to support EV infrastructure in the DC metro region of DC, MD and northern Virginia in concert with our adjoining neighbors along the Northeast corridor. He added that “strategic support from our key stakeholders like Pepco, Eaton Corp. and other EV equipment suppliers and sponsors will certainly contribute to the success of this project. GWRCCC’s goal is to increase energy independence by reducing the region's use of petroleum and advancing alternative transportation vehicles and fuels.”
President Obama has called for 1 million plug-in vehicles to be on the streets nationwide by 2015. The participating jurisdictions’ contribution to that goal (based on population) would represent about 20 percent or 200,000 electric vehicles, according to TCI.
The Northeast Electric Vehicle Network is part of TCI's goal. This effort builds upon over a decade of work by the states to build networks of natural gas and biofuels infrastructure.
It is estimated that about 30 percent of all the region’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector, which includes cars, trucks, ports, aviation and railroads.
For more information about the regional EV deployment plan, contact Claude Willis, Deputy Director of Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition at claude.willis2@dc.gov.