Local Partnership to Support Clean Fuels, Vehicles, and Infrastructure Development
ATLANTA - (August 27, 2009) The United States Department of Energy awarded a $15 million grant to DeKalb County in partnership with the Clean Cities Atlanta Coalition that will fund programming designed to reduce the use of fossil fuels in transportation vehicles.
"I want to personally thank the Department of Energy and the Office of the Vice President for pushing this program forward and making this award to the City of Atlanta and its partners" said Mayor Shirley Franklin. "These funds will advance our goal of reducing the City's carbon footprint."
The program will be implemented during the course of the next two years and includes efforts to increase the supply of renewable Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) while growing the availability of CNG fueling stations, increasing the number of fleet and commercially operated vehicles operating on alternative fuels and deploying a variety of advanced-technology hybrid vehicles.
The Atlanta-based team is comprised of a public and private partnership between City of Atlanta, Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE), DeKalb County, Emory University, Georgia Institute of Technology, PS Energy Group, Inc., Sustainable Atlanta and United Parcel Service of America (UPS).With the grant money, the proposed project is readily implemented and commercially viable to expand the use of alternative fueled vehicles and advanced technology vehicles in Atlanta and surrounding areas. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Atlanta will benefit greatly from the emissions reduction from a public health perspective. This project will also provide a template for the expanded use of locally produced renewable transportation fuel and advanced technology vehicles in a variety of applications."
The Clean Cities program is helping give state and local governments the tools they need to build a greener transportation system that will create new jobs and help to put America on the path to a clean energy future," said Don Francis, Clean Cities-Atlanta Coordinator. "Advancing the number of alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles on the road will increase our energy security, decrease our dependence on oil, and reduce pollution across the country."
Under the Recovery Act, the Clean Cities program will fund a range of energy efficient and advanced vehicle technologies, such as hybrids, electric vehicles, plug-in electric hybrids, hydraulic hybrids and compressed natural gas vehicles, helping reduce petroleum consumption across the U.S. In addition, funding will support refueling infrastructure for various alternative fuel vehicles, including biofuels and natural gas. Other efforts under the Clean Cities program include public education and training initiatives to further the program's goal of reducing the national demand for petroleum.
"We are thrilled to receive this good news about the highly competitive national grant to reducing our reliance on petroleum based fuels in transportation," said Mandy Mahoney, Director of Sustainability for the City of Atlanta.
"After a lot of hard work, we are very excited for the opportunity to showcase the teamwork and collaboration of the Coalition partners in reducing the use of fossil fuels in the Atlanta and taking a significant step toward improving public health," said Lynnette Young, Executive Director of Sustainable Atlanta. "This will improve the attractiveness of our city as we work to attract new businesses and jobs in these trying economic times."
Specific program objectives collectively include:
Converting 1,000 standard cubic feet per minute (scfm) of LFG at the DeKalb County Landfill
that is currently being flared to CNG. The long-term goal is to reduce annual criteria pollutant
emissions from the facility as follows:
• 9.0 tons of NOx
• 49.2 tons of CO2
• 2.2 tons of Particulate Matter (PM)
• 1.1 tons of SO2
• 0.5 tons of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC)
• Constructing four new CNG fueling stations and expanded dispensing capacity at one existing station
• Deployment of191 light to heavy duty alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles comprised of 122 CNG vehicles, 20 hydraulic hybrid vehicles and 49 hybrid electric vehicles.
• Significant reduction of petroleum use by more than 489,000 gallons per year.
• Creation of more than 185 new jobs and retention of nearly 300 additional jobs.
• Public education and promotion regarding alternative fuel technologies and vehicles driven by the coalition and individual partners which demonstrate the financial viability of the LFG – CNG business model as well as the economic and environmental effectiveness of CNG and hybrid vehicles in delivery, passenger and municipal fleet operations.
The City of Atlanta is pursuing $535 million in stimulus funding across 34 different ARRA-funded programs. With this award, the City has received over $41 million in commitments to date.
City of Atlanta - Division of Sustainability
The Division of Sustainability is focused on instituting environmental protection practices into Atlanta city government. The Division is aimed at improving the city's environmental programs and policies such as water and energy conservation, solid waste and emissions reduction and recycling. For more information: https://www.atlantaga.gov/
Clean Cities Atlanta
Clean Cities Atlanta (www.cte.tv/cca/cleancitiesatl.html) is a government-industry partnership that works to reduce America's petroleum consumption in the transportation sector. Over the last 15 years, the Clean Cities program has established local coalitions across the country that promote the growth of alternative fuels and showcase the potential of advanced and energy efficient vehicles.
Coca Cola Enterprises (CCE)
Coca-Cola Enterprises is the world's largest marketer, producer, and distributor of bottle and can liquid nonalcoholic refreshment. CCE sells approximately 80 percent of The Coca-Cola Company's bottle and can volume in North America and is the sole licensed bottle for products of TheCoca-ColaCompany in Belgium, continental France, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Monaco, and the Netherlands. For more information, please visit www.cokecce.com.
Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation's premier research universities. Ranked seventh among U.S. News & World Report's top public universities, Georgia Tech's more than 19,000 students are enrolled in its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, Liberal Arts, Management and Sciences. Tech is among the nation's top producers of women and African-American engineers. The Institute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduate students and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus the Georgia Tech Research Institute.PS Energy Group, Inc. Founded in 1985, PS Energy Group, Inc. (www.psenergy.com) is a privately-owned, Atlanta-based company that offers business, industry and government a full range of energy and transportation solutions. As one of the nation's top 50 diversity-owned businesses, PS Energy Group provides transportation fuels, emergency fueling and fleet management services, including etc., a Global Positioning System product line that helps improve productivity, profitability and the quality of the environment through better asset monitoring and vehicle tracking.
Sustainable Atlanta
Sustainable Atlanta (www.sustainableatlanta.org) is a catalyst, consultant and facilitator for sustainable progress in Atlanta as well as across the nation. Its core focus lies in convening leaders from academic, business, civic, governmental sectors and non-profits to develop sustainable policy and programs for those who live, work and play in Atlanta. Sustainable Atlanta leverages its expertise to help develop policies, programming, strategies and best practices that make Atlanta, other municipalities, citizens and organizations more bottom-line efficient, environmentally responsible and more competitive when attracting employers/jobs.
United Parcel Service (UPS)
UPS (NYSE: UPS) is the world's largest package delivery company and a global leader in supply chain and freight services. With more than a century of experience in transportation and logistics, UPS is a leading global trade expert equipped with a broad portfolio of solutions. Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., UPS serves more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. The company can be found on the Web at UPS.com. To get UPS news direct, visit pressroom.ups.com/RSS.
