DOE extends Clean Cities initiative to five more National Parks

The US department of energy-run Clean Cities National Parks Initiative is expanding to five new parks. Also, the use of alternative fuels will be promoted at three additional parks under the initiative.

The Clean Cities initiative helps the National Parks Service (NPS) safeguard national parks while providing access to them by adopting alternative fuel vehicles, minimizing the use of petroleum, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from transportation.

The Clean Cities initiative began in 2010 and covers more than 27 parks across the US.

Under Clean Cities, national parks of different sizes have been helped to identify the vehicles and infrastructure that best suit their needs. The parks now use varied environment-friendly equipment ranging from propane lawn mowers to plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and chargers.

Staff, concessioners, and visitors at the park are also being trained to make their driving behavior more sustainable, an official statement from the DOE reads.

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The five new parks to which Clean Cities is bringing alternative fuel vehicles are: Christiansted National Historic Site (Virgin Islands); Petrified Forest National Park (Arizona); Point Reyes National Seashore (California); Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield (Missouri); and Independence National Historical Park (Pennsylvania).

Christiansted National Historic Site will use two all-electric vehicles as part of the park’s ongoing educational programs for the local community on climate change and sustainability. It will also install two PEV charging stations.

Petrified Forest National Park is installing two public PEV charging stations, one at each end of the park. One will be a DC fast charger that can add 50 to 70 miles of range to a vehicle in 20 minutes, while the second charger can add about 10 to 20 miles of range per hour. The project will also deploy an all-electric vehicle and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in the park’s fleet.

Point Reyes National Seashore will get two more all-electric vehicles and install two private charging stations to support them.

Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield will add a propane pick-up truck and four propane lawn mowers besides a propane dispenser to fuel the new equipment.

And Independence National Historical Park plans to introduce six propane-run lawn mowers and three refuse vehicles that run on electricity by replacing conventional ones.

Existing projects are also being expanded at Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming), Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming), and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Tennessee).

Ajith Kumar S

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