Contact: Noah Barnes, Electrification Coalition
noah@electrification.org, (202) 461-2371
WASHINGTON—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently announced more than $735 million in tentative awards from the Clean Heavy-Duty Vehicles Grant Program. The grants will fund more than 2,400 zero-emission heavy-duty vehicles across 70 projects in 27 states, three Tribal Nations, and one territory. The funding will also support charging infrastructure and workforce development. Seventy percent of the selections support the deployment of clean school buses.
Electrification Coalition Executive Director Ben Prochazka responded:
“Electrifying our nation’s heavy-duty vehicles, including freight trucks and school buses, presents a critical opportunity to create jobs in the manufacturing and charging infrastructure sectors—enhancing our economic and national security by strengthening our industrial base and investing in a transportation system powered by diverse, domestically-produced sources of energy.
“The future of transportation, including medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, is electric. The United States must build the vehicles of tomorrow to remain competitive or we risk falling behind our global competitors. Federal funding for transportation electrification is spurring innovation and private-sector investments, with nearly a quarter-million U.S. jobs already announced in the EV sector. We must continue the policies and actions that are creating good-paying jobs and strengthening the U.S. auto industry.
“The Electrification Coalition supported applications from the City of Atlanta for electric refuse haulers, shuttle buses and utility vehicles, as well as the City of Santa Monica for electric utility vehicles. We offer a variety of resources for state and local governments that are electrifying their fleets. We also support private-sector partners through the Electric Freight Consortium and ports through the Port Electrification Network.”
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About the Electrification Coalition: The Electrification Coalition is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that promotes policies and actions to facilitate the widespread adoption of plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) on a mass scale to overcome the economic, public health and national security challenges that stem from America’s dependence on oil. ElectrificationCoalition.org