Clean Cities Now

 

Winter 2014/2015
Program News

One Year—One Billion and Beyond

In 2013, Clean Cities hit a major milestone. For the first time, the program and its stakeholders reduced U.S. petroleum consumption by more than 1 billion gallons in a single year.

Clean Cities’ efforts in 2013 also prevented the production of 7.5 mil­lion tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars from American roads.
In addition to minimizing America’s oil dependency and our transporta­tion system’s environmental footprint, these numbers demonstrate that Clean Cities coalitions are building on their strengths and expanding their reach. With their 14,000 stakeholders, coali­tions inventoried 475,000 alternative fuel vehicles in 2013. These vehicles and the fuel they used accounted for 39% of 2013’s petroleum displacement. While the largest number were flex fuel ve­hicles (FFVs), compressed natural gas vehicles displaced the most petroleum.
Electric drive vehicles also experienced substantial growth in 2013. While hybrid electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and all-electric vehicles only accounted for 7% of petroleum displacement, they displaced 39% more petroleum than in 2012. With more coalitions improving community readiness for plug-in elec­tric vehicles, we expect these numbers to continue to rise.

Coalitions kept up the pace when it came to educating their stakeholders and the public. Coordinators conducted more than 2,000 outreach, education, and training activities that reached about 120 million people. Fleet managers were a major focus of these efforts, with coalitions reaching out to private, government, transit, and utility fleets.
While these accomplishments are im­pressive, they are just one step towards Clean Cities’ major goal of reducing 2.5 billion gallons of petroleum annually by 2020. The 2013 petroleum reduction was 13% higher than 2012 efforts, put­ting the Clean Cities program ahead of schedule for reaching that goal.
From 15 million gallons in its first year to a cumulative 6.4 billion now, Clean Cities is shifting transportation away from petroleum one vehicle, fleet, and community at a time. 
Clean Cities’ 2013 petroleum-reduction milestone puts the program ahead of schedule for meeting its goal of reducing U.S. petroleum consumption by 2.5 billion gallons per year by 2020. Source: Clean Cities 2013 Annual Metrics Report Compressed Natural Gas: 56% Biodiesel: 15% Ethanol: 12% Propane: 7% Liquefied Natural Gas: 5% Plug-In Hybrid & Electric: 5% Hydrogen: 0.1%

Petroleum displacement by fuel type in 2013. Source: Clean Cities 2013 Annual Metrics Report