Energy and transportation departments team up to help states develop charging infrastructure for electric vehicles

The Departments of Transport and Energy on Tuesday create a joint office dedicated to electric vehicle charging infrastructure, aimed at helping states quickly plan and build electric vehicle chargers along highways across the country, as well as in hard-to-reach communities. The funding was part of President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill passed by Congress last month.

“The goal here is how we can bring the best expertise into the national electric car charging program,” said another official with the Biden administration. “We’re working together a lot now, but we all recognize that this is a huge opportunity in EV charging.”

Vice President Kamala Harris first announced the joint venture Monday morning, along with Granholm and White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy. On Tuesday, Granholm and Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg will sign a memorandum of understanding to create the joint office.

“With this announcement by DOT and DOE, we are taking a major step forward in addressing our climate crisis by helping to make the benefits of EVs more accessible to all Americans,” Buttigieg told CNN in a statement.

Together, the agencies will help advise and guide states beginning to plan and build networks of EV chargers. They will also work with public utility commissions in several states to improve electrical transmission and the grid so that enough power is available to charge new cars.

About $5 billion has already been allocated to states over the next five years to establish an interconnected network of charging stations. Major states like Texas and California received large chunks of money — $408 million and $384 million, respectively. States are eligible to apply for grants from an additional $2.5 billion pool.

Expanding the infrastructure of charging stations in the US is an important step to encourage more motorists to switch from gas vehicles to electric vehicles.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids accounted for just 2% of U.S. car production in 2020. While Biden has set out an aggressive target for electric vehicles — that half of the vehicles sold in the U.S. will be electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids by 2030 — the government is rapidly testing the number of plugs available on the country’s roads. to expand.

There are currently about 45,000 publicly available chargers in the US, raising fears among some drivers that there simply aren’t enough places to charge when driving from one place to another. Biden’s goal is to expand that to 500,000 chargers, both on highways and in communities, especially underpopulated and rural areas that don’t have a lot of existing electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

“The investments we make in charging infrastructure today will be critical in the coming years as more and more Americans make the switch to electric vehicles,” Tom Carper, chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement. .

Ultimately, the state departments of transportation will have a lot of say in the location and types of chargers installed across the country. For example, states will have to decide whether to buy more expensive DC fast chargers (which can charge a car to a mostly full charge in 20-30 minutes) or cheaper L2 chargers (which can take hours to charge).

Administration officials told CNN that allaying concerns about available chargers is an important step in getting more people to drive electric vehicles. Another key component is cutting the cost of the vehicles themselves, which would be done through tax credits for electric vehicles in Biden’s Build Back Better Act, which is still pending a vote in the Senate.

Some states want to know when more electrical funding from the federal government will come to them, federal officials told CNN.

“This is a very worthwhile investment, but many people want the additional support provided by the Build Back Better Act,” said a government official.