Vice President Kamala Harris visits Brandywine to promote electric vehicles

Vice President Kamala Harris has visited Prince George County, Maryland, to announce a $ 7.5 billion plan to build an electric vehicle infrastructure system.

As part of this effort, a joint office will be formed between the Federal Departments of Energy and Transport to oversee a goal of building 500,000 vehicle charging stations nationwide, particularly in rural neighborhoods, disadvantaged and difficult to access.

The two agencies will also launch an electric vehicle advisory committee and appoint members by the first quarter of next year. The joint office will issue guidelines and standards for states and consult with manufacturers, civil and environmental rights groups, and tribal communities.

Two main goals for the use of electric vehicles are to reduce gas emissions and tackle the climate crisis with net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Sounds like a message Harris presented on November 5 when she visited NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in the Greenbelt.

“Climate change has become a climate crisis and it demands urgent action,” Harris said at the county public works and transportation department building in Brandywine. “The future of transportation in our country and around the world is electric. “

Harris visited the maintenance facility where four county electric buses continue to be tested and are expected to be put into service in February.

She even charged one of the county vehicles at a charging station made by Bowie’s SemaConnect.

“There is no noise or smoke. So how do I know this is actually working? She told Mahidhar Reddy, founder and CEO of SemaConnect.

Reddy showed the vice president that a person must have a card in front of a screen at the station to “authenticate” the card. A light turns green to indicate that the vehicle has been fully charged.

Antoine Thompson, executive director of the Greater Washington Region Clean Cities Coalition and a resident of Upper Marlboro, said his organization was pushing for transportation fairness around purchasing and affordability to charge elective vehicles.

“There are just not enough charging stations,” he said. “We need to address the issue of vehicle fairness.

That’s why the $ 2.5 billion electric vehicle infrastructure plan will allow local governments to compete for grants that allow local governments to integrate charging systems for private and commercial use.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said another goal would be to provide a credit of $ 7,500 to individuals for the purchase of an electric vehicle. But that amount remains pending in the Senate under the President’s $ 2,000 billion Build Back Better Act.

Granholm said she was renting an electric vehicle and solar panels from her garage.

“It literally means I’m riding on the sun,” she said. “This is why setting up these electric charging stations across the country is so critical. We need to make sure that these electric vehicles are accessible to everyone. The future is electric.

The electric vehicle plan designates roughly $ 63 million for Maryland. Locally, Prince George officials continue to work on a plan to fight climate change that includes registering about 15% of the 620,000 vehicles on the roads traveled in the county as electric vehicles by 2030.

The climate proposal notes that the county would track and report annually the number and type of EV charging stations in the county, the number of EVs, and the number of households that have switched from EVs to gasoline vehicles.

Of the. Susie Proctor (D-District 27A) of Acokeek, who attended the Vice President’s visit to Brandywine and her district, said educating residents on the use of electric vehicles remains a major step.

“Everything we do will be focused on education,” she said. “So many people don’t accept that electric cars are our future… but having the vice president here to promote it is so refreshing to hear. we will be with [Biden administration] to promote this.

William J. Ford – Washington Informer Editor

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