A Conversation with Pete Buttigieg

Our electric vehicle infrastructure
program, where we're distributing

$5 billion to states to establish

a car charging network along our highways,

as well as a companion program called
Community Charging, which is another 2.5.

They do carry standards.

We don't want to dictate, of course, all
of the particulars of charging stations

that will typically be owned
and operated by the private sector

but we do need to make sure certain
things are true about them.

We need to make sure that you are not,

for example, confined to an individual

network in order to

be able to purchase power
from a given charging station.

Right now, that's often the case.

So it's as if, you know,
you could only fill up at a Speedway

gas station if you were a Speedway member,
but not if you were a BP member, right.

We need to make these interoperable.

And accessibility
is one of the considerations

that's going into this as well.

And as we work with our counterparts
in the Department of Energy

to lay out those requirements
and expectations for

the states in their investments,

we're going to be, within reason,

laying out some

standards and expectations
for how those chargers

ought to work.

Well, you know, one thing we're trying to
support is active transportation.

So we need to make sure that people
are able to walk or bike or roll

to wherever they need to be
and I think that's something that has been

maybe more familiar for people
living in city centers of dense

urban areas but can bring
benefit everywhere in the country.

When we adopted a Complete Streets
approach in my hometown of South

Bend, for example, that really opened up

what had been a road pattern

that was almost hostile to any traffic
besides a vehicle.

Really opened that up to people
and through that to small business too,

because it became a more inviting place
to have a cup of coffee

or browse the store.

So all of these things add up to,
I think, a more vibrant local economy,

and they add up to more ease for people
getting to where they need to go.

Especially when you start
from the principle of safety.

And that's really what's on our mind
as we work

to make active transportation
available to more Americans.

Many of our grant programs do just that.

E-bikes hold the promise of making it

more natural

for a lot of people
to commute to work by bike.

I think that they present

an opportunity in terms of people
who are maybe

don't think of themselves as athletes
or aren't able to

bike longer distances on traditional bike

to now have a convenience to get around.

Again,
safety has to be our guiding principle.

So, you know, local communities,
I think, are dealing with the necessity

of managing the

shared spaces
and just the rules of the road

in a way that it is safe
because these e-bikes can go

obviously faster, not just farther
than traditional bicycles,

but we see a lot of potential there
and we want to support local community

visions for how they want
to put these technologies to use.

The great thing about this role
and the daunting thing about this moment

is that we need to be delivering
improvements to every mode

of transportation in the country and,
you know, we have provisions

in this new infrastructure law
that touch on everything from

commercial aviation to pipeline safety.

We're administering a pipeline safety
improvement program

that's not getting as much attention
as some of the other things,

but it just gives you a sense of the range
of what we do.

We work on commercial space travel, port

improvements, anything related
to how people or goods move around.

We tend to have some role in it
and what we're very proud of

with this infrastructure
deal is the opportunity

to make more improvements than we have in
certainly my lifetime.

Everything from the ASAP program
that we're rolling out next week,

improvements to stations across
the country for transit, accessibility

to the airport terminal program,

which also by the way,
did a lot for accessibility.

A lot of

ADA improvements are coming to airports
around America now through this funding,

and we're proud to be able to bring that
to communities of different sizes.

By many measures, the U.S.

doesn't have a single airport
in the world's top 25 now.

And that we want to change.

The president
definitely wants to change it.

And it starts with the basics,
making sure that airports

before we even get to the
the finer points of the esthetics of it,

we just need to make sure they work well
and that they work well for everybody.

So this round of terminal grants

alone was 84 different airports
we're able to make a difference.

And there are big recognizable ones
like L.A.X.

all the way down to

Chamberlain, South Dakota,

where they're general aviation terminal
right now is a mobile home.

And we're funding them a new building.

But in places like in between,
like Huntsville, Alabama,

which will get better restrooms and

finally be able to get

ADA compliance in areas
where they hadn't before.

There was the Cash For Clunkers program,
I think during the Obama administration,

the approach that we've pursued
has had to do with

reducing the upfront sticker
price of EVs through tax credits,

although unfortunately there's

been a lot of congressional,
mostly Republican opposition to that.

So it hasn't passed,
but we are seeing that the scale effects

are starting
to pull down the cost of EVs too.

The cost of charging is a little different
because it's in the hands of utilities

that there are 3000
different utilities across the country.

But we're certainly interested to see
what kinds of approaches will be taken

locally.

For example, you know,

I used to run a utility as mayor
because I ever saw the water works.

And one of the uses that my successor put
rescue plan dollars to was to reduce

or forgive utility bills for low
income residents on their water charges.

So there are ways this can be done.

It varies from state to state,
and it gets a little difficult

for us from the federal level
on the transportation side of the House

to have all the visibility into that.

But we're certainly interested
in approaches to make the charging as well

as the purchasing of electric vehicles
more affordable for more Americans.

One thing that a lot of folks
don't realize is that you can often charge

a vehicle with a

regular wall plug.

That's what

frankly, that's what Chasten and I do
in Michigan with our plug in hybrid,

although it's quicker and more efficient
if you can get a level two charger.

But that only helps you if you live in
a single family home or you have a garage.

A lot of people in multi-family
dwellings also live in areas

where it's not yet profitable
for a company to install a charger.

For example, in the parking
lot of your apartment building.

That's where we think the community
charging funding that we're going to be

distributing can make a difference.

We buy down the difference

where it doesn't pencil out
just yet for the private sector,

but when we get that charger up, it helps
drive adoption and helps, of course,

people get in on the fuel savings
that come with owning.

That's funded for this fiscal year.

We'll get the first of five years,
which across five years

will be two and a half billion.

That will go alongside the 5 billion.

So about 1 billion a year that's
going to the states for their own plans.

Those are more toward
building out the network of

chargers across the U.S.

highway system.

You know, we do everything

from overseeing the Academy for Merchant
Mariners at Kings Point, New York

to licensing commercial space launches
and so I think everybody knows

we're the Department
of Planes, trains and automobiles.

But even I am repeatedly struck by the
sheer range of things we get to work on.

But they're all important and they're
all there and they're all exciting.

And there's never been a better
time to do this work.

Yeah, it's

you know, we're trying to strike
an appropriate balance

in terms of our own travel,
even just how I get around the city.

So one idea that I, to be honest, stole
from Secretary Granholm was to convert

one of my security detail vehicles
to an electric car so that I can

get around

DC on it on a zero emissions basis.

But of course part of my job is to travel
to be in lots of different places

at once,
we want to see, feel and experience

what's happening on the ground

so that we can make the best
possible decisions as we guide

what's ultimately going to be roughly
half of the $1.2 trillion of the

president's infrastructure plan.