Helping to kick off Alternative Fuel Vehicle Awareness Month, Utah Paperbox unveiled five new electric vehicle-charging stations at its new facility in Salt Lake City today. The company’s President, Steve Keyser, says his goal is to see 10 percent of his workforce in alternative fuel vehicles by the year 2020.
“I realize that the air quality in this valley has gotten substantially worse, particularly over the last ten to fifteen years. And I can’t leave; I’m here, so I’ve got no choice but to try to make it better. I believe I can, and I’ve seen it done in California,” he says.
Utah Paperbox’s five charging stations were funded with a portion of Utah Clean Cities Coalition’s $14.9 million dollar American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant, as well as the state’s clean fuel vehicle grant and loan program. Cody Stewart, the Governor’s Energy Advisor, says joint efforts like this will help Utah reach its 10-year energy goals.
“We recognize that there are some significant environmental concerns that we have and that the populous has and we are trying to address them. But as the manager here said, this has got to be a partnership; it’s both a government and a business partnership. The government can’t lead on its own and a business can’t lead on its own, we’ve got to work together. So that’s what I think we are trying to do, is show there is a Utah way to fix this problem, and we can do it with Utahns finding Utah solutions,”he says.
Stewart says the state is working to expand the use of alternative fuels such as liquid natural gas and compressed natural gas. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, Utah ranks third in the nation for compressed natural gas infrastructure.
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