CALSTART Statement on Department of Energy
Decision to Award East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor
Freight Corridor Planning Project
February 15, 2023
Washington, DC – Today the Biden-Harris Administration, through the Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technology Office and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, announced funding that will support critical strategic planning to decarbonize goods movement along heavily trafficked freight corridors here in the United States. The East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor project alone will create and catalyze partnerships and develop strategic investment plans to support the deployment of commercial medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) infrastructure from Georgia to New Jersey. It will focus on maximizing benefits to pollution-burdened communities prioritized by DOE’s Justice40 Initiative, create a more efficient zero-emission goods movement backbone supporting early-adopting fleets in major goods movement hubs and critical facilities, and align planning and investment priorities across the many authorities, utilities, states, and agencies taking advantage of major private charging corridor investments and rapid East Coast ZEV supply-chain development.
“CALSTART and our team of zero-emission commercial vehicle and infrastructure partners are grateful to the Biden-Harris Administration and DOE for their support of the East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor,” said John Boesel, President and CEO of CALSTART. “This program emphasizes community-driven planning alongside freight planners and utilities and will position us for smart and equitable infrastructure deployment on the East Coast. This funding will help us in partnership with others to decarbonize the trucking sector along the eastern seaboard.“
Partnered with NREL, Momentum, the Eastern Transportation Coalition, Georgetown Climate Center, Dominion Energy, Exelon, and Clean Cities partners along the I-95 corridor between Savannah, GA and Newark, NJ (Clean Cities Georgia, Palmetto Clean Fuels, Triangle Clean Cities, Virginia Clean Cities, Maryland Clean Cities, Delaware Clean Cities, Eastern Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Transportation, and New Jersey Clean Cities), the project will use state-of-the-art assessments of goods movement, energy demand and infrastructure needs, and critical Justice40 and community-first strategies to locate charging and hydrogen refueling sites and identify funding needs and opportunities. CALSTART is also working with a substantial group of industry partners including utilities, truck-stop operators, fleets, zero-emission infrastructure providers, and truck manufacturers to deploy this project. The detailed and phased-deployment strategy will establish the East Coast as the epicenter of zero-emission freight transformation and improve the quality of life for overburdened port communities throughout the region.
In addition to being awarded the East Coast Commercial ZEV Corridor project, CALSTART is proud to be a collaborator on awards for additional regions in the same funding category: the I-80 Midwest project led by Cummins and the Northeast Electric Highways Study led by National Grid.
About CALSTART
A national nonprofit consortium with offices in New York, Michigan, Colorado, California, Washington, DC, central Europe, and partners worldwide, CALSTART works with 300+ member company and agency innovators to build a prosperous, efficient, and clean high-tech transportation industry. We knock down barriers to modernization and the adoption of clean vehicles. CALSTART is changing transportation for good.