Samantha Bingham, Carl Lisek, Lorrie Lisek, and Jonathan Overly are 2015 Hall of Fame Award Winners
Coordinators Samantha Bingham, Carl Lisek, Lorrie Lisek, and Jonathan Overly are the latest inductees into the U.S. Department of Energy’s Clean Cities Hall of Fame, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the program’s mission of reducing petroleum use in U.S. transportation. Clean Cities Director Dennis Smith and Co-Director Linda Bluestein inducted the four coordinators into the Clean Cities Hall of Fame on Sept. 3, 2015. The awardees were gathered in Lemont, Ill., where representatives from nearly 100 Clean Cities coalitions from across the country gathered for the 2015 Clean Cities Coordinator Workshop. The coordinators helm Chicago Area Clean Cities, South Shore Clean Cities, Wisconsin Clean Cities, and East Tennessee Clean Fuels coalitions, respectively.
Under the Hall of Fame winners’ leadership, the four coalitions have saved more than a combined 63.6 million gasoline gallon equivalents of petroleum in 2014 alone, thanks to the use of alternative fuels, advanced vehicles, and fuel efficiency measures. Their efforts in 2014 also averted more than 396,844 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. These savings equate to removing more than 88,187 passenger cars from the road.
Bingham, along with Carl and Lorrie Lisek, lead the Lake Michigan Consortium—a collaboration between Chicago Area Clean Cities, South Shore Clean Cities, and Wisconsin Clean Cities coalitions—and were inducted into the Hall of Fame as a team. Together, the Consortium has established alternative fuel corridors along I-90 and I-94, as well as created alt-fuel hot spots in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Gary and South Bend, Indiana. The Consortium has also been highly successful at replicating each other’s alt-fuel vehicle programs and creating training centers across all three regions.
Overly was recognized as a transportation champion who has helped put Tennessee on the map by promoting alternative fuel adoption through a variety of strategic partnerships. Some of these efforts include facilitating statewide fuel discussions via natural gas and propane task forces, developing an educational biofuels webinar series, and leading a major truck stop electrification project to install 50 electrified and HVAC-supplied truck spaces at a major travel plaza. Overly’s coalition was also actively involved in creating the country’s longest biofuels corridor, which made it possible to travel from Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., south to Miami, Fla., by refueling with either E85 or B20 the entire trip.
To read more about the winners’ accomplishments and see past award winners, visit the Clean Cities Hall of Fame.
- Kendall Septon, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Clean Cities Technical Response Service Team
- technicalresponse@icfi.com
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