Oakmont celebrates new EV chargers

People have plenty of reasons to visit Oakmont, and assistant borough manager Phyllis Anderson struck up a recent conversation with folks who stopped by in their electric vehicle.

“They were from out of town,” she said. “They saw on the map that we have charging stations.

“So yes, we put Oakmont on the map.”

Anderson was the catalyst for the installation of six electricity-dispensing ports in the Third Avenue lot at Riverside Park. The borough is the second municipality, after West Mifflin, to benefit from Duquesne Light Co.’s Community Charging Program, through which the utility designs and builds the requisite infrastructure.

“It’s really exciting to see this clean-energy future that everybody talks about turning into a reality,” Kevin Walker, president and CEO of Duquesne Light Holdings Inc., said during a May 19 ribbon-cutting ceremony for Oakmont’s facility. “We’ll have many, many more of these to come, and you can be proud that you’ll be one of the first.”

Elected officials joining Walker as guests included Jay Costa, D-Forest Hills, minority leader of the Pennsylvania Senate.

“We’re glad we’re second,” he joked. “We would have liked to have been No. 1, but that’s OK.”

He complimented Oakmont’s initiative.

“It’s a community working with Kevin and Duquesne Light to make a statement about their commitment to addressing climate change,” he said. “This is just another example to help us reduce our carbon footprint, so we can move forward and make certain that we do what we can to impact our environment.”

Costa spoke about efforts in Harrisburg to lessen emissions of greenhouse gases, compounds such as carbon dioxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons and ozone that trap heat in the lower atmosphere. Lawsuits have stalled Pennsylvania’s attempts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, an agreement by 12 states to curb emissions from power plants.

State Rep. Joe McAndrew, D-Penn Hills, cited an American Lung Association report stating the potential for $86.8 billion in Pennsylvania public health benefits through a transition to zero-emission transportation.

“My daughters are young. They have precursors to asthma. I want to make sure they live in a world where we have clean air,” he said. “And so these chargers, they represent something in the region that we’re developing that will help make our society better and our air cleaner.”

Borough manager Scot Fodi acknowledged the backing Oakmont received from leaders at the federal, state and Allegheny County levels.

“Thank you for trusting us with this project,” he said. “We hope you trust us with more projects, and we thank you for your support.”