Clean Fuel News

2016 White House Call for Fleet Electrification Commitments

Submissions and Comments Due October 14th

In 2015 the President set the Federal government’s first fleet electrification target, requiring 20% of new passenger vehicle acquisitions to be zero emission vehicle (ZEV) or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PEV) by 2020 and 50% ZEV or PEV by 2025. The Federal government has committed to scale up purchases to reach these targets, and in 2017 plans to procure more than 500 ZEV/PEVs.

The White House Office of Federal Sustainability recently announced a call to states, counties and municipalities to join Federal agencies in the transition to fleet electrification. Interested parties were invited to join a conference call with Christine Harada, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, on Thursday, September 15, to learn more about the White House’s effort to gather commitments from state and local government leaders on their fleet electrification and fleet charging infrastructure goals (A summary of the call is included below). The Office of Federal Sustainability will accept and compile all commitments that meet the criteria below with the possibility of making an announcement in the fall timeframe.

FLEET ELECTRIFICATION WITHIN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT: Christine Harada, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, Executive Office of the President

• In Executive Order (EO) 13693, Planning for Federal Sustainability in the Next Decade, the President placed unprecedented priority on federal fleet electrification. For many of our federal agencies, the electric vehicle scale-up required by EO 13693 also presents an unprecedented challenge. One of our top priorities is to help federal agencies prepare to meet their EV passenger fleet acquisition targets. 
• Starting in FY17 fiscal year, federal fleets must increase the percentage of new passenger vehicle acquisitions that are electric vehicles to 20% by 2020 and 50% by 2025. Electric vehicles also present us with a strong tool for Federal fleet GHG emission reduction requirements. The President’s EO 13693 also requires that federal fleets reduce per mile emissions 4% by 2017, 15% by 2021, and 30% by 2025. It is also important to note that EO 13693 describes the critical requirement of building out our federal facilities’ EV charging infrastructure as well.
• Looking at the Federal fleet, we have over 630,000 domestic vehicles that consume nearly 400M gallons of gasoline each year. Our fleets have worked hard over the past decade to diversify their fuel – in fact, nearly 40% of our domestic fleet is alternative fuel vehicles. To date, the Federal government has procured over 4,000 electric vehicles. The vast majority of those are low-speed electric vehicles. The Federal fleet has ~800 electric vehicle sedans and 60 truck and medium/heavy duty electric vehicles. 
• In order to meet the President’s goal of making 20% of new procurements electric vehicles by 2020, we need to scale up by meeting annual milestones each year. That means in FY17, we plan to procure more than 500 electric vehicles.
• The White House is working with GSA and the Department of Energy to identify the process, technical expertise, best practices and resources needed for agencies to meet our fleet electrification goals. We’re seeing significant leadership on fleet electrification coming out of the Department of Defense, Department of Transportation, NASA and Health and Human Services, and other agencies, and we are confident that we can meet our 500 electric vehicle procurement target next year.

WHITE HOUSE CALL TO ACTION FOR PUBLIC SECTOR FLEET ELECTRIFICATION: Christine Harada, Federal Chief Sustainability Officer, Executive Office of the President

• Across the Federal government we are fortunate to have the incredible buying power that comes with a fleet of our size, and we’re starting to see the automakers responding to our increased demand for electric vehicles.
• But the federal government is not alone in this effort to scale-up electric vehicles in our fleets. That is why, in July, my office announced a call to states, counties and municipalities to join Federal agencies in the transition to fleet electrification.
• We are launching a White House effort to gather commitments from state and local government leaders on their fleet electrification and fleet charging infrastructure goals. Through October 14th the Office of Federal Sustainability will accept and compile all commitments with the possibility of making an announcement in the fall timeframe.

COMMITMENT SUBMISSION PROCESS: 

• The White House is seeking high-level pledge-style commitments from governors, mayors, county or other local government leadership.
• Fleet electrification commitment submissions should have a quantitative figure and timeframe. The quantitative portion of the commitment can be expressed either numerically (example: 20 vehicles) or on a percent basis. For example, a city may state that it is targeting a procurement of 50 electric vehicles or 10% of new fleet procurements. In terms of timeframe, we would like to focus on near-term commitment, so figures for 2017 are ideal. However, commitments through 2020 are welcome.
• Submissions for these forward-looking commitments may also include a goal for charging infrastructure deployment.
• State and local governments may also use this platform to amplify their commitments to the provision of workplace charging infrastructure for government employees.
• The commitments should consist of a short paragraph on the government's sustainability efforts as it pertains to GHG reductions from transportation, followed by a few bullet points on the commitments previously described.
• Commitments are due by Friday, October 14. Submissions and questions should be sent to Dee Siegel at [email protected].

STATE AND CITY LEADERSHIP: The White House was joined in kicking off the call for fleet electrification leadership by Washington State, and the Cities of Atlanta, Los Angeles and Columbus. 

• WASHINGTON STATE: Sam Ricketts, Director, Washington, DC Office, Washington Governor Jay Inslee

Sam Ricketts, Director of Washington Governor Jay Inslee's DC office, spoke on his state's efforts on fleet and transportation electrification. In late 2015 Governor Inslee launched the "Washington State Electric Fleets Initiative," which will ensure that at least 20% of all new state passenger vehicle purchases are electric vehicles by 2017. He took this action to help fleets scale up their use of EVs, and to 'double-down' on the 10% EV fleet target established by the Pacific Coast Collaborative. State agencies have been analyzing their vehicle fleets to determine which vehicles can be replaced with EVs and identifying charging infrastructure required to meet the 20% goal, and the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services plans to announce a large-scale EV procurement later this year. Governor Inslee is excited to partner with the Obama Administration on EV procurement, and encourages other state and local governments to participate.

• ATLANTA: Stephanie Stuckey Benfield, Director, Mayor's Office of Sustainability

The City of Atlanta is a leader in sustainability with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% and fossil fuels by 23%. The City is committed to further reducing emissions by 40% by 2030 through the continued addition of zero emission vehicles and infrastructure. Further, the City is reaching its goal of becoming a 100% alternative fuel fleet through the deployment of 60 electric vehicles, 5 neighborhood electric vehicles in addition to the use of CNG vehicles. The City is encouraging public adoption of electric vehicles through policy review and the ambitiously installation of charging stations in 100 dedicated EV parking spaces at the Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport.

• LOS ANGELES: Matt Petersen, Chief Sustainability Officer

Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti’s Sustainability Office developed and is currently implementing the City’s first Sustainable City pLAn, a data-driven blueprint that lays out the long and short term sustainability outcomes for the City of Los Angeles. As part of their Air Quality strategy, Los Angeles has committed to having 50% of all new light duty vehicle procurement be made up of 50 percent fully battery electric vehicles by 2017 (achieved in 2016) and 80 percent of municipal-fleet procurement by 2025. Delivering on a promise made last fall, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed 100 electric vehicles, 100 Level 2 charging stations and four DC-fast charging stations for use by their police force in June. Understanding the vital importance of electrifying medium and heavy duty equipment as well, Los Angeles is taking delivery of four electric buses this year and will be piloting several medium duty trucks and vans in various departments, testing multiple use cases. Overall Los Angeles is expecting to take delivery of around 300 more light duty BEVs and PHEVs this fiscal year.

• COLUMBUS: Kelly Reagan, Fleet Administrator

Kelly Reagan, the Fleet Administrator for the City of Columbus, oversees Columbus Ohio’s fleet of 6,400 units. Columbus has long served as a committed pioneer of alternative fuel fleet vehicle adoption. Columbus was selected as the winner of the $40 million Smart Cities grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation in June 2016. In addition, Vulcan Inc. has contributed another $10 million to incorporate electric vehicle infrastructure in Columbus. Initiatives under the program include fleet electrification, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, smart lighting and traffic signals, self-driving technology, connected vehicles, transportation apps and other initiatives to modernize Columbus’ transportation system. As part of the proposal, Columbus has committed to procuring 200 electric vehicles for their fleets and installing the appropriate corresponding charging infrastructure within the next three years. An additional 100 electric vehicles will be added to City of Columbus Partner fleets. 

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