The U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) has announced $623 million in grants to support electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure across the country.
"We're at a moment now where the electric vehicle revolution isn't coming, it is very much here," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
The funding will go to 47 projects in 22 states and Puerto Rico, leading to the construction of approximately 7,500 EV charging stations.
"This charging infrastructure is making sure that everyone from the local business owner to a freight truck operator can conveniently and reliably get where they need to go," said Shailen Bhatt, the administrator of the Federal Highway Administration.
Some of the projects include:
- $10 million going to the New Jersey Department of Evironmental Protection to build charging stations for people living in multi-family housing in disadvantaged and rural communities.
- $15 million going to the Maryland Clean Energy Center to build approximately 90 EV charging stations across the state.
- $15 million going to the county of Contra Costa in Calif., to build chargers at libraries.
- $15 million is going to Energy Northwest to install chargers across western Washington State and northern Oregon
- $1.4 million going to the Chilkoot Indian Association in Alaska to build EV charging stations in the town of Haines.
"As a product of America's industrial Midwest, I take very personally the importance of the fact that America led the world in the automotive revolution," said Buttigieg on Wednesday. "We're very much at the point of needing to assess whether [EVs] will, in fact, be made in America by American workers and whether the benefits will reach all Americans. President Biden's policies are about making sure that the answer to both of those questions is yes."
The funding comes from the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
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Source: ABC News
