PGE Grant Helps Fund Oregon's First Clean Energy Garbage Truck
Portland General Electric's Drive Change Fund supported the purchase of a zero-emissions garbage truck.
In November, Oregon took a big step forward in using electric vehicles (EVs) to reduce emissions from its waste management operations. The state’s first all-electric garbage truck completed its first pickup in Portland, thanks in part to support from Portland General Electric’s (PGE’s) Drive Change Fund.
“We’re proud to work together with customers and community members to demonstrate what’s possible in diverse industries in building an economy increasingly powered by electricity from renewable resources,” said the company in a press release.
The zero-emissions truck, operated by COR Disposal and Recycling, can hold a charge for two days of trash pickups and takes three hours to recharge. It will operate in East Portland—an area that PGE says has been disproportionately impacted by climate change and air quality concerns. PGE helped with the installation of charging infrastructure needed to operate the truck.
“This milestone for COR will create green jobs for our community while linking together social, economic, and environmental justice in ways our economy has never witnessed,” said COR CEO Alando Simpson, thanking PGE and other community partners “who made this fully electric truck a reality for the residents of East Portland.”
PGE’s Drive Change Fund was established in 2019 to help support local businesses, municipalities, and nonprofits interested in accelerating the electrification of their transportation fleets. In 2023, the fund, which is supported by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Clean Fuels program, made nearly $2.3 million in grants available to advance the electrification of transportation in Oregon.
The types of projects it helped support include a wildlife conservancy’s purchase of EVs to help transport injured animals and plants, a public works department’s investment into an electric street sweeper, and a health-care nonprofit’s use of an EV to deliver prescriptions to patients, among others. Information about the types of projects supported by the Drive Change Fund is available on PGE’s website. Grant applications for 2024 will be available in February.
Electric companies are investing more than $4.2 billion across the country to deploy charging infrastructure and to pave the way for an EV future, with more than 26 million EVs projected to be on U.S. roadways in 2030. The transportation sector is the economy’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In Oregon, the DEQ estimates transportation accounts for more than a third of the state’s carbon footprint.
Learn more about how electric companies are fueling the electrification of transportation.