State Officials Announce $2.5 Million Electric Vehicle Grant in Chelmsford

To commemorate Earth Day 2013, officials from the Patrick-Murray administration were on hand at the Adams Library to announce a $2.5 million incentive program for municipalities looking to buy electric or plug-in vehicles as well as dual electric charging stations.

The event, which took place at the same time as a similar event in Greenfield, honored the two communities along with several others that had installed charging stations comparable to the one at the library, nearly 140 throughout the state so far.

"Today I'm proud to stand here in a green community where they've established a fuel efficient vehicle policy," said Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources' commissioner Mark Sylvia.

Sylvia and other state officials hope that the $2.5 million grant launched on Monday, called the Massachusetts Electric Vehicle Incentive Program, will help Massachusetts reduce its dependence on foreign oil, improve air quality, and meet emissions goals set by the Global Warming Solutions Act, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050.

“This incentive program is intended to encourage and increase the deployment of zero-emission and plug-in hybrid vehicles that will provide significant air pollution emission reductions,” said Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection commissioner Kenneth Kimmell. “Over the lifetime of an electric vehicle, the owner can reduce fuel consumption by more than 6,000 gallons of gasoline, reduce fuel costs by thousands of dollars, and cut our reliance on foreign oil.”