Bowman Consulting Group Ltd., a multi-disciplinary engineering services firm, has partnered with Transportation Energy Partners (TEP) and dozens of public and private partners on Drive Clean Rural USA, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) funded pilot project to bring alternative fuel sources, like hydrogen, electric and more to rural communities.
Funded by the DOE, and managed by the nonprofits TEP and Clean Fuels Ohio, Drive Clean Rural USA is an eight-state pilot project that brings together rural government leaders, business owners, fleet managers, farmers, and industry experts to accelerate rural communities’ access to clean fuel transportation solutions. The eight states participating in the pilot project include: Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
Participating county government and private fleet partners will receive free technical assistance from Clean Cities coalitions and the project’s industry partners. Drive Clean Rural USA is a three-phase project that will run through June 2024.
“Bowman is committed to the clean-energy transition, and we’re thrilled to work with Transportation Energy Partners and Clean Cities coalitions to help rural communities nationwide with the environmental, survey, civil and MEP engineering required to get better access to alternative fuels,” said Michael Ginsberg, Vice President of Energy Transition at Bowman.
Bowman joins this project as an industry partner to provide planning and engineering support to communities in the eight clean cities partner states to help them gain access to alternative fuels. Bowman and other industry partners help support rural communities by providing knowledge on infrastructure for alternative fuels, including logistics and transportation, predevelopment construction assistance, and construction costs.
“This project is all about overcoming barriers that rural communities face in transitioning to cleaner fuels and vehicles,” said TEP Executive Director Ken Brown. “We are delighted to have Bowman’s planning expertise, which will play a vital role in helping communities maximize the clean air, cost saving, and economic development benefits that clean fuels and vehicles can deliver.”