Northeast States Form Regional Electric Vehicle Network

Transportation, energy and environment officials from ten northeast states and the District of Columbia announced the formation of the Northeast Electric Vehicle Network on Wednesday. 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.

As part of their ongoing collaboration through the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI), the 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.

Participants in the Northeast Electric Vehicle Network are Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.

The Network's efforts to accelerate the deployment of electric vehicles throughout the Northeast will be supported, in part, by a nearly $1 million Electric Vehicle Readiness Grant awarded to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) on behalf of TCI.  This grant, announced in September by the U.S. Department of Energy, will fund the development of guidelines for the siting, permitting, and installation of EV charging stations, which is a critical next step in the development of the Network.

“The collaboration between NYSERDA, TCI and the Network is important in developing the infrastructure to support Electric Vehicles across the Northeast, thereby driving market demand for both manufacturers and customers,” said Francis J. Murray Jr., President and CEO of NYSERDA.  “The private-public partnerships resulting from this collaboration will benefit residents and businesses throughout the entire Northeast by reducing the use of petroleum and the emission of greenhouse gases.”

Next steps for the initiative include outreach to interested parties in the public and private sectors; collaboration with the private sector, utilities and local governments on a blueprint for EV deployment; and definition of a set of consistent infrastructure standards. Through this effort, TCI will help the region become a leader in the deployment of clean energy vehicles.

The President 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 be about 20 percent or 200,000 electric vehicles.

The Northeast Electric Vehicle Network is part of TCI's goal to increase energy independence by reducing the region's use of petroleum and advancing alternative transportation fuels.  This effort builds upon over a decade of work by the states to build networks of natural gas and biofuels infrastructure.

The TCI’s clean fuels efforts represent one of several regional projects it has launched.  Other work includes efforts to improve the efficiency of freight movement throughout the region, expand the use of innovative information and communication technologies in the transportation sector, facilitate a range of alternative fuels and vehicles, and implement the recently announced regional agreement by TCI states to work together to build more sustainable communities.

About 30 percent of all the region’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector, which includes cars, trucks, ports, aviation and railroads.