Kern County Blueprint for MD/HD Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure
The Blueprint is prepared in partnership with Gladstein, Neandross and Associates (GNA) and Kern COG.
Executive Summary
The State of California and its constituent local and regional governments are
becoming clearer and more deliberate in establishing goals to have a greater share
of the medium and heavy-duty transportation sector transition to zero-emission technologies from a historically pervasive reliance on diesel.
The immediate health and environmental merits of such a market transition are evident, and the impending growth of the goods movement sector throughout much of California create an urgency to equip regional fleets and road systems with the appropriate infrastructure to facilitate this imperative.
As such, the California Energy Commission (CEC), through GFO-20-601, awarded funding to the Kern Council of Governments (Kern COG) and Gladstein, Neandross and Associates (GNA) to create the “Kern County Blueprint for MD/HD Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Infrastructure” (Blueprint) to evaluate the county-wide factors and influences that support MD/HD ZEV infrastructure implementation while prioritizing community stakeholder interests. The Blueprint project endeavors to identify collaborators, tools and policies at the regional level and the project level that accelerate the region’s transportation goals. The Blueprint evaluates five high-impact
infrastructure projects in Kern County that are capable of stimulating greater market participation and demonstrating innovative ZEV deployment that will induce other fleet operators and their industry partners to invest in ZEV infrastructure.
Thoughtful economic development and greater goods movement can be a boon to
the local economy. Facilitating the transition to ZEVs increases the likelihood that
the increased economic activity will not come at the cost of diminished air quality
and public health. This requires a Blueprint that connects stakeholder interests and
reduces barriers to development that commonly face ZEV infrastructure projects.
Through creating the Blueprint and documenting the processes, the result is a
template for creating future Blueprints that can be applied to other regions
throughout the state. The Blueprint team documented zero-emission infrastructure
progress to-date, engaged with stakeholders to align the Blueprint with community
needs, developed transparent and agreed upon methodologies for project
selection, conducted thorough analysis, and produced detailed implementation
plans for each site. The Blueprint scope includes both electric charging and
hydrogen fueling infrastructure throughout the process, although the
transportation sector in Kern County is largely focused on battery electric
technologies.