The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has announced three grants for electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure in Pittsburgh totaling $1.5 million. The City council needs to vote to approve the grants, but if so, the money will go toward new EVs, EV charging infrastructure, and compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks.
The three grants will work as follows: more than $250,000 as a partial reimbursement for the purchase of 45 fully electric vehicles for the city, $37,000 will pay for 10 electric charging stations to be built in a Department of Public Works warehouse, and the third grant, more than $1.3 million, will be a reimbursement for three electric recycling packers and five CNG garbage trucks.
The measures reportedly were unanimously approved in a preliminary city council vote, but it wasn’t without controversy. Some officials have expressed concern that investing in CNG and the associated infrastructure is a waste of money since the long term goal is for the city to have an all-electric fleet. But the preliminary vote seems to indicate that an interim solution is the most viable way forward for Pittsburgh.
This kind of alternative energy-focused transportation investment in such a critical national supply chain hub as Pittsburgh is a great sign for the future. When this program proves to be successful in Pittsburgh, it seems likely that Pennsylvania will continue building more EV infrastructure. And as those, and similar, investments grow and show dividends in both sustainability and new economic growth, more states and the federal DOT are very likely to grow and implement more and more EV infrastructure plans. We look forward to this bottom up growth to pull the US transportation network back into global leadership.
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