Infrastructure Bill Call-Out for Rural & Hard to Reach Communities

The $1 trillion Infrastructure reconciliation bill passed by the Senate on August 10th (which is planned to be heard by the House before September 27th) is likely to pass in a form similar to what left the Senate.

While the details of this Bill will get worked out in rural makings that will happen largely outside of Congress, it will be an important step towards helping the U.S. prepare to live and commute in a world that will soon be dominated by electric vehicles.

$7.5 billion is set to be dedicated to the installation of electric vehicle charging infrastructure. This is a significant investment! To put this in perspective, this is approximately 15x more than the 15% of $3 billion allocated by states to EV charging through the VW Settlement‘s Environmental Mitigation Trust program.

This funding will be for nation-wide investment and will be vital for helping drivers have the away-from-home access to charging. This is increasingly needed for heavy-duty transport fleets as well as light-duty passenger EVs.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal put forward by the White House, other policymakers, and experts is a high-level plan of what they would like to see in legislation. As the final Bill language and implementation direction is still in limbo, it requests a special funding focus on rural, disadvantaged, and hard-to-reach communities.

In a recent interview, expert Jeremy Michalek, Professor and Director of the Vehicle Electrification Group at Carnegie Mellon said that competition will come from the private market for infrastructure bill funds, however, public utility-run chargers could offer better access for drivers. Collaboration between these two stakeholder groups will be particularly important over the next five to ten years.

Planning ahead to leverage these funds is necessary. The funds are likely to be administered over approximately 5 years through incentives, tax benefits, and grants. Planning for partnerships and development plans that align with the goals of this bill will be advantageous for any public or private entity looking to leverage these funds.

Read more on Insights from the Field and upcoming events in our August Newsletter.