More than 30 states, including Kentucky, have been approved to receive federal funding from President Joe Biden’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to add charging stations along their highways, an effort to expand the use of electric vehicles.
The funding is a part of the Biden administration’s goal to create a nationwide network of about 500,000 electric vehicle chargers along 53,000 miles of road.
“We have to have a charging network across the country so that people aren’t fearful when they go out in their vehicle and don’t find a place to fuel up to charge it up,” U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in an interview withSpectrum News. “There is a nationwide effort to do a whole nationwide system that comes through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.”
Kentucky is set to receive more than $69 million under this program over the next five years.
“You’ve got states like Kentucky that have 3,000 new electric vehicles registered this year, you want to make sure that everybody who’s got those vehicles – you’ve got about 9,000 people with vehicles – have a place to charge,” Granholm told Spectrum News. “And we want to encourage more people if they can, if they’re thinking about upgrading, or if they’re thinking about turning in their vehicle to consider an electric vehicle.”
“Making electric vehicle charging accessible to all Americans is critical to achieving a transportation sector that improves our environment and lessens our dependence on oil and gas,” Granholm wrote in a statement last week announcing the approval of the initial batch of state plans to build out charging infrastructure.
Granholm says this move will “ensure drivers can spend less on transportation costs while commuting confidently by charging along the way.”
The guidelines for this funding say at least one fast-charging station, with at least one station with a four-port charger, should be installed every 50 miles. However, some states received exemptions in rural areas.
Federal officials say they hope to have all of the state’s plans for charging stations approved by the end of this month. Kentuckians will start to see these charging stations built this fall.
