HomeMy WebLinkAboutWashington State Department of Transporation COMivi, Board of County Commissioners
� , 4`s co- O4, 1820 Jefferson Street
c PO Box 1220
`,, Port Townsend, WA 98368
Kate Dean,District 1 Heidi Eisenhour,District 2 Greg Brotherton,District 3
May 16, 2022
Washington State Department of Transportation
Attn: Debi LaVaque
ZEVIP Grant Coordinator
Email:debi.lavaque@wsdot.wa.Rov
We are writing in support of the West Sound Ferry Access Cluster proposal by Forth and EV Charging Solutions
(EVCS) proposal to develop new electric vehicle DC fast charging stations to serve routes to and from five
Washington State Ferry Terminals.
The State of Washington ranks second in the nation in zero emission vehicle market share with over 28 EVs per
1,000 registered vehicles. Washington is also home to the nation's first multi-state network of DC fast charging
stations which was constructed nearly ten years ago. However,there are still gaps in EV charging infrastructure
including in the West Puget Sound, along state highways linking to Washington State Ferry(WSF) routes. As the
WSF fleet transitions to electric vessels,facilitating the decarbonization of the vehicles travelling on the ferries
becomes critical to reaching Washington's carbon reduction goals.
The West Sound Ferry Access cluster of EV stations will provide charging opportunities along the key state route
corridors within several miles of the western terminals. These charging locations will fill a critical gap in the
Washington State DCFC infrastructure. The West Sound Ferry Access proposal will place six strategically located
high-power charging stations for EV drivers.The selected sites are along routes that lead to and from the
Washington State Ferry Terminals. There are currently only 3 stations serving the West Sound region with
150kW chargers between the Seattle metropolitan area and Port Angeles. Adding these additional six stations
will fill gaps and provide redundancy for ferry travelers as they make connections from the Puget Sound to the
Olympic peninsula and vice versa.
We support this application. Increasing access to EV charging promotes a reduction in greenhouse gases in our
community. It is also consistent with recent modeling done by the Port Townsend/Jefferson County Climate
Action Committee,which identified a fast transition to electric vehicles as the top opportunity for reducing our
community wide emissions, as seen in the 2020 Gri nrvJu,/ Cu", Cr,rnmunity Emissions Reduction Opportunities
(,.pr.,',and the EV chargers in this grant will help our community speed this transition.
We look forward to seeing additional DC fast charging stations across this part of the State.
Best Regards, f
Jefferson County Commissioners
479Prbt/Pdiariakon101-fli i 'l------------ No
Kate Dean di isenhour, Chair rei :ro herton
District 1 District 2 District 3
Phone (360) 385-9100 Fax (360) 385-9382 jeffbocc@co.jefferson.wa.us