Pacific Power has awarded more than $2 million to 22 organizations in Oregon for projects that will expand electric mobility and connect people across the state to the cost-saving, clean-air benefits of electric vehicles.
The latest round of Electric Mobility Grants will fund a wide variety of opportunities. For example, they will help bring an electric forklift to a community college in Pendleton, an electric refrigerated truck to a food bank in Bend, the first electric vehicle to the Falls City Public Works Department and free e-bikes to residents of a Central Oregon affordable housing complex. In addition, a dozen community-focused organizations and nonprofits will be able to purchase electric vehicles to help them carry out their work, and EV charging stations will be installed from Wallowa County to the South Coast, serving areas that currently lack adequate public charging.
“Pacific Power is committed to delivering a sustainable future for our state while benefiting local communities,” said Kate Hawley, electric transportation senior product manager for Pacific Power. “These transformative grants will supercharge the switch to clean transportation, a key component to building a zero-emissions future. Many of the grants are concentrated on underserved and rural communities, as part of our goal of ensuring that all our customers have equitable access to the benefits of electric transportation.”
About Electric Mobility Grants
Pacific Power has distributed more than $6.5 million in Electric Mobility Grants to Oregon communities since 2020. Funding is made possible by the Oregon Clean Fuels Program, which aims to reduce the carbon intensity of Oregon’s transportation fuels. Pacific Power raises funds for the grants through the sale of Clean Fuels Program credits that the company aggregates on behalf of customers who charge their electric vehicles at home. Grant matching and grant writing support are also available to organizations that are pursuing EV-related projects.
The latest round of Electric Mobility Grants will fund a diverse group of innovative projects:
Central Oregon
- The Giving Plate (Bend). The Giving Plate, which addresses childhood hunger across Central Oregon, will use funds to purchase an electric refrigerated truck and a used electric passenger car that will travel to underserved communities to deliver food. Funding will also cover the installation of a charging station to support the vehicles and provide public charging.
- The Deschutes River Conservancy (Bend). The conservancy is dedicated to restoring streamflow and improving water quality in the Deschutes River Basin. Funds will be used to install two EV charging ports and purchase an electric truck for delivering in-person programming to more rural corners of the basin, and to work with economically disadvantaged communities that depend heavily on agriculture.
- Crook County Justice Center (Prineville). The justice center campus serves many at-risk, socially vulnerable and low-income residents in an area that has limited access to EV infrastructure. Funds will be used to install eight EV charging ports on the campus– two in a secure lot reserved for staff and six available to the public.
- RootedHomes (Bend). RootedHomes develops affordable net-zero housing to help solve a growing housing crisis for Central Oregon’s workforce. In partnership with Ride2You, they are tackling the issue of cost-effective, long-term, sustainable transportation by offering a free e-bike to each household in a 40-unit affordable housing community, using E-mobility funds to purchase the bikes.
- Deschutes Children Foundation/Friends of the Children Central Oregon (Bend). Dedicated to guiding and supporting young children from disadvantaged backgrounds, the foundation will use funds to purchase an electric van that will transport program participants to activities that help educate and prepare them for the future.
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (Warm Springs). The rural and Tribal utilities department seeks to embrace electric transportation and provide supporting infrastructure in a community severely underserved by EV infrastructure. Funds will be used to help the utility advance its forward-looking electrification plans by purchasing two EV trucks and providing two new publicly available charging ports, free for use by low-income families.- For information about the Electric Mobility Grant program and customer rebates for installing EV chargers, please visit pacificpower.net/ev.
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About Pacific Power
Pacific Power provides safe and reliable electric service to more than 800,000 customers in 243 communities across Oregon, Washington and California. Pacific Power is part of PacifiCorp, one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States, serving nearly two million customers in six western states as the largest regulated utility owner of wind power in the West. For more information, visit www.pacificpower.net.