EUGENE, Ore. – It costs truckers almost $3 an hour to keep their engines idling. It also pollutes the air.
A New York-based firm has come up with an alternative that saves money for the trucker, as well as saves the environment. For just $1 an hour, truckers at one of seven spots in Oregon and Washington will soon be able to plug their trucks into electrical outlets.
Within the next year, New York-based Shurepower will install 275 power pedestals at seven truck stops along I-5 in Oregon and Washington, where as many as 30,000 trucks make their way from Canada to Mexico every year.
At each one, truckers will be able to nose their trucks into a parking space, shut off the engine and hook up to a thick power plug that will provide electricity, Internet and telephone line access.
Electrical hookups offer an obvious cost advantage, said Erica Graetz, operations manager for the nonprofit partner in the project, the Climate Trust, based in Portland.
“You’re saving about $2 an hour, and you don’t have the noise and air pollutants coming out of your truck while you’re sitting there,” she said.
Similar projects using the 2-year-old technology are under way in New York, Massachusetts and Tennessee.
For the West Coast projects, the Climate Trust has budgeted $450,000 – money it has gotten from power producers that are required by law to invest in pollution-reduction programs intended to offset the pollution they create.
Still, the project is likely to make only a dent in the practice of truck idling. In Oregon there are 1,977 designated truck parking places – and the project will electrify only 275, or 13 percent.
The creators of the project hope it will catch on, especially with neighbors. Because the program entirely eliminates emissions for the trucks while they’re plugged in, communities next to electrified truck stops should notice the atmosphere is quieter and cleaner, Graetz said.
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