Electric Power Research Institute’s CEO Arshad Mansoor says the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed into law by U.S. President Biden sends a strong signal on clean energy transition while making historic investments into the development of electric vehicle and grid infrastructure.
“The electric sector will play a crucial role in achieving the U.S. government's climate goals, as many sectors of the economy—including transportation, buildings, and industry—will achieve large carbon emissions reductions through electrification and other low-carbon energy strategies where the electric sector will also have an important role to play,” Mansoor said.
The package includes clean energy provisions, including funding for the research and development of clean energy sources and building infrastructure for EVs and grid infrastructure, to ensure more reliability and resilience.
The EPRI CEO also emphasized, “…it's important to ensure the clean energy transition is equitable and sustainable, while keeping electricity accessible, affordable, and reliable for consumers in the U.S. and around the world.”
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes $65 billion which will be spent on both upgrading the nation’s transmission and distribution system to better more remote clean energy resources to electric demand centers such as cities. In addition, the Biden infrastructure package will invest more than $7 billion in electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
The president wants to build a nationwide network for 500,000 EV chargers by 2030 to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles, reduce emissions and create a new manufacturing sector.
