National Parks Initiative
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) partners with the National Park Service (NPS) through the Clean Cities National Parks Initiative. The initiative supports transportation projects that educate park visitors on the benefits of shifting to affordable, domestic alternative fuels, advanced vehicles, and fuel-saving technologies and strategies. Since 2010, VTO and Clean Cities and Communities coalitions have partnered with NPS on 35 projects to put alternative fuel and fuel-efficient vehicles on the road, reduce vehicle idling, and improve vehicle efficiency. These actions support and coincide with NPS's efforts to reduce vehicle congestion, air pollution, and resource degradation, and to preserve the long-term quality of the parks.
Petrified Forest National Park
Hikers on the Blue Mesa Trail. Courtesy of NPS
Set partly within the Painted Desert of northeastern Arizona, Petrified Forest National Park offers glimpses of the world's largest concentration of petrified wood, fossils, and a fragile grassland ecosystem. Working with Tucson Clean Cities Coalition (TCC) in 2015, the park replaced all gasoline-fueled vehicles within its Visitor Services fleet and installed two publicly available electric vehicle charging stations in the park. It also worked with TCC to launch an extensive education and outreach effort designed to educate park visitors, tour bus drivers, and park staff about how to eliminate unnecessary engine idling, reduce fuel consumption, and improve local air quality. The old vehicles were replaced with one plug‐in electric vehicle and one hybrid electric vehicle. The electric vehicle supply equipment included a DC Fast Charger with Level 2 capabilities located at the park's north visitor center.
See how the Clean Cities National Parks Initiative supports parks transportation projects.