Charging stations for electric trucks, buses, and other vehicles will be installed along the Interstate 95 corridor with grant funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Clean Corridor Coalition, which includes Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey and Connecticut, will receive about $250 million to develop zero-emission infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles traveling on I-95. Of that pot of money, $2.5 million will go to the Maryland Department of Environment and $78 million to the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The EPA also awarded more than $400 million, including $50 million for Maryland agencies, to a separate coalition. The Climate Pollution Reduction Grants Atlantic Conservation Coalition will use the money to improve forest management, agroforestry, and to protect and restore high-carbon coastal habitats and forests that are under threat.
“Progress happens when you form partnerships at the local, state and federal levels to meet our bold climate goals and fund the green transition,” said Maryland Department of the Environment Secretary Serena McIlwain in a statement. “This award represents a step forward in creating a better future for our children and grandchildren by accelerating the use of clean trucks on our highways and expanding our tree canopy to reduce carbon pollution.”
States like California, Washington, Oregon and Ohio have already implemented charging stations for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. But this investment will be a first for the East Coast, said Deron Lovaas, Chief of Environment and Sustainable Transportation at the Maryland Department of Transportation.
“We’re in a pioneering role here,” Lovaas said. “There are no clean truck charging depots east of Ohio…. As a nation, we’re just getting started on this project of building out charging infrastructure for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.”
That’s important, Lovaas said, because transportation accounts for nearly one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland, the majority of which come from on-road emissions.
Nitrogen oxides, another pollutant emitted by these large vehicles, chemically react with volatile organic compounds and sunlight to create ozone, a component of smog.
Trucks are also a disproportionate source of particulate matter pollution. Fine particulate matter, “smaller than a grain of sand that you find at the beach,” can “get deep in your lungs and they create real public health problems,” Lovaas said.
In cities like Baltimore, communities that live next to highways and other major roadways are exposed to air pollution at greater rates. And while these air pollutants pose a risk to everyone, they are particularly harmful to vulnerable populations like children, older adults, and people with asthma or other illnesses.
Maryland and its partners hope to reduce the environmental and health consequences of gas-powered vehicles by replacing them with electric ones. But to do that, the zero-emission infrastructure must first be more widely available, Lovaas said.
Gov. West Moore announced the funding for the medium- and heavy-duty vehicle infrastructure weeks after conditional awards for similar infrastructure for light-duty vehicles. That money from the federal National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program will be used to build charging stations throughout the state.
Medium-duty vehicles can range from 10,001 pounds (the size of some large pickup trucks) to 26,000 pounds (the size of some school buses). Meanwhile, heavy-duty vehicles are classified as those weighing 26,001 or more, such as a freight truck.
The total $250 million will fund about 20 charging depots along the I-95 corridor, including several in Maryland, Lovaas said.
The sites of these depots have not yet been determined, but Maryland will coordinate with the other states in the Clean Corridor Coalition.
“Where we site our depots obviously depends in part on what happens in Delaware,” Lovaas said. “And how Delaware sites depends on what happens in New Jersey, and all the way up to Connecticut.”
The maximum distance between stations for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles is also yet to be determined. For light-duty vehicles, the federal NEVI program requires stations to be no more than 50 miles apart near major interchanges or highways.
“As more goods move across Maryland and help fuel our economy, transitioning trucks to zero-emission technologies is essential to meeting Maryland’s carbon reduction targets,” said Maryland Transportation Secretary Paul J. Wiedefeld in a statement.
Although not part of I-95, the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a major pathway for freight trucks, which have since been diverted to other routes since the bridge’s collapse in March. As the state plans for the bridge’s replacement – and the eventual return of commerce over that segment of the Patapsco River – Lovaas hopes charging depots will be part of that vision.
In planning the sites of charging stations – for light-, medium-, or heavy-duty vehicles – Lovaas said drivers need to have “range confidence,” meaning they have to feel secure that they can make it from one station to the next without their battery running out between charges.
That confidence will increase as more stations come on line, he said. An early adopter of the infrastructure, California has more than 100,000 electric vehicle charging stations; Maryland only has about 1,000 stations, all for light-duty vehicles.
Maryland is working toward a goal of having 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. With just over 100,000 registered EVs in Maryland, the state will need to increase that number by nearly 10 times as much by the end of the decade.
“We need to keep that growth rate up. And in fact, we need to bend the curb and accelerate it even further,” Lovaas said.
Maryland has signed on to California’s Advanced Clean Trucks, which involves increasing quotas for electric vehicle sales beginning in model year 2027.
As part of the new investment in charging stations for electric vehicles, Lovaas expects to coordinate with the Public Service Commission and utility providers to ensure the power grid is equipped to take on these charging depots.
He also hopes for federal funding to help vehicle manufacturers retool their factories and upskill their workers to build these trucks and truck components.
Maryland has “the most ambitious climate law on the books,” said Lovaas, pointing to the state’s goal of reducing carbon emissions by 60% by 2031 and reaching net zero emissions by 2045 – years ahead of many others’ 2050 target.
Reducing pollution from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles must be part of the work toward that goal, he said.
“To bend the curve on carbon emissions that much, we need to use every tool at our disposal,” Lovaas said. “That’s why this is key…. It helps us to achieve the goals specified in our nation-leading climate goals.”
