Energy initiative lays out plans

OAK RIDGE, TENNESSEE - Fuel-stingy buses — powered either by electricity or biofuel — tooling from McGhee Tyson Airport to Oak Ridge and along key side routes.

Solar charging stations for electric cars at the airport, with some gas-free vehicles available for shuttling travelers.

A national lab campus that is "petroleum free" in nine years.

Those ambitious plans to make the Pellissippi Parkway the axis of transportation efficiency and a model for the nation were unveiled recently at the National Transportation Research Center.

They're goals — most still being mapped out — of the Oak Ridge Energy Corridor, an initiative for deploying and showcasing the latest in transportation research and demonstration projects.

With a crowd of 50 watching, some of the key players in ongoing and upcoming efforts inked a memorandum of understanding, pledging to work together.

"We believe our efforts will positively impact national transportation and energy security," said Gary Gilmartin, executive director of the Oak Ridge Energy Corridor.

It should also translate into new jobs for the area, said Gilmartin, an employee of the nonprofit economic development group, Community Reuse Organization of East Tennessee. CROET was asked by the U.S. Department of Energy to form the new initiative.

Among those signing the cooperative effort: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, DOE, Metropolitan Knoxville Airport Authority, Y-12 National Security Complex and the city of Oak Ridge.

"You guys are my folks that are going to make this happen," Gilmartin said.

Gerald Boyd, manager of DOE's Oak Ridge Office, voiced optimism in the fledgling effort.

"This particular initiative on transportation, I think, could be a real spearhead in putting this particular region on the map in terms of it being a demonstration site for multiple energy initiatives," Boyd said.

Next up, said Gilmartin: getting local businesses on board.

Among corridor initiatives: boosting the use of electric vehicles and reducing pollution in a region on notice for not meeting federal Environmental Protection Agency air pollution standards.

Gilmartin said the Oak Ridge Energy Corridor doesn't have a budget. "We'll identify funding as we build projects," he said.

Some local transportation studies and projects have already received financing and will be tied into the Energy Corridor initiative, Gilmartin said.

"This regional approach is a model for how metropolitan areas can work together on solutions to challenging problems," Oak Ridge Mayor Tom Beehan said.