JMU partner Virginia Clean Cities receives $3.5 million EPA grant

Virginia Clean Cities (VCC) at James Madison University has received a $3.5 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to work with UPS on replacing diesel trucks in the Mid-Atlantic region with trucks that run on domestically produced compressed natural gas.    

The Mid-Atlantic Nitrous Oxide Reduction Program II (MANOR II) will run for two years. UPS has matched the EPA grant with $13.9 million.     

The grant will be used to replace 72 short-haul heavy duty diesel Class 8 UPS trucks operating in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The project will reduce diesel fuel usage in UPS’s fleet by about 1.75 million gallons per year and significantly cut air polluting emissions along heavily traveled interstate corridors, said Matthew Wade, VCC’s deputy director and MANOR II project leader.   

"The MANOR II project award is one of many projects that VCC executes with communities, businesses and partners in the Mid-Atlantic region,” said Keith Holland, JMU’s associate vice president for research and economic development. “JMU's Division of Research, Economic Development and Innovation is grateful for the 15-year partnership with VCC and its efforts to reduce transportation related pollution impacts in our communities through grant-funded public service and outreach."  

VCC administered the first MANOR grant of over $2 million in 2019 and worked with UPS to replace 79 diesel tractor-trailer trucks in the Mid-Atlantic region with trucks that use either cleaner domestically produced compressed natural gas or newer, cleaner diesel engines.  

VCC is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy Clean Cities and Communities partnership. In 2009, VCC formed a partnership with JMU to enable both organizations to leverage resources, current initiatives and future opportunities.