Moving the Nation With Advanced Transportation: Electric Humvee and Hybrid Bus Highlight New Partnership |
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U.S. Department of Transportation
February 4, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, February 4, 1998
Contacts: DOT: Bill Adams, 202-366-5580
DOE: Jayne Brady, 202-586-5806
DOD: Lt. Col. Bob Potter, 703-697-3189
EPA: Stephanie Cutter, 202-260-9828
DOT 24-98
"MOVING THE NATION WITH ADVANCED TRANSPORTATION"
Electric Humvee and Hybrid Bus Highlight New Partnership
Secretary of Energy Federico Peña, Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner, Under Secretary of Defense Dr. Jacques Gansler, and Dr. John Gibbons, Director of White House Office of Science and Technology, gathered today to signal the Clinton Administration’s commitment to meet global warming challenges through investments in science and technology. Reviewing the achievements of a Defense Department research initiative, Under Secretary Gansler announced plans for an FY99 transfer of the Advanced Vehicle Program to the civilian agencies. The agencies will ensure program successes, such as the electric humvee and the hybrid bus, can be applied more broadly to school buses, municipal fleets and other medium- to large-size vehicles.
"This new partnership will help commercialize more efficient vehicle systems that reduce pollution," said Secretary Peña. "American consumers and businesses can look forward to a cleaner environment because the transfer of these energy efficient military technologies."
The $20 million program transfers important technology research from the Defense Department to a joint, public-private partnership led by the Department of Transportation. The effort’s goal is to, by 2004, demonstrate commercially viable buses, delivery trucks, municipal fleets and other medium-size vehicles that achieve at least a 50 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a reduction of emissions to at least 30 percent below current standards.
The partnership will continue to work with the Advanced Transportation Technologies Consortia to develop more efficient vehicle systems -- such as electric propulsion drives, and infrastructure -- such as fueling and charging stations.
"Working together, the Advanced Vehicle Partnership can help us meet the economic challenges of the ever growing demand for transportation services," said Secretary of Transportation Slater. "Working together, as President Clinton says, America can find ways to grow the economy and clean the environment at the same time."
"The President is determined that America shall lead the world in meeting the challenge of global warming and doing so in a way that grows the economy," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol Browner said. "Investing in America’s ingenuity and technological leadership, we can develop new technologies that will enable us to meet this goal."
President Clinton’s FY99 budget request included increases in the transportation sector to accelerate the entry of new, more efficient technologies into the marketplace. It also calls for tax incentives to move vehicles with twice the fuel efficiency of today’s vehicles into the market.
"The fact that we have four government agencies and a couple hundred small businesses represented here today, committing to cooperate on this program, shows that we’ve learned to work together toward a whole greater a the sum of its parts," said Dr. John Gibbons, director of the White Office of Science and Technology Policy.