<
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/03/biden-plan-eliminates-billions-in-fossil-fuel-subsidies/>
"Biden’s proposal includes the usual planned investments in roads and bridges,
but it also calls for $85 billion to revamp existing mass transit systems,
which are in dire straits across the US as ridership has plummeted during the
pandemic. Amtrak would receive $80 billion to address its backlog of repairs,
and the plan will direct an unspecified amount of money to electrify the US
Postal Service fleet and at least 20 percent of the nation’s school buses.
Infrastructure supporting electric vehicles would also get a boost under the
plan—Biden is repeating his call for 500,000 EV chargers by 2030. The network
would presumably be public, helping to address one of the major criticisms of
an all-electric vehicle fleet: many renters do not have access to charging
stations when their car is parked at home, and many owners of single-family
homes may not have the funds to install one. A public network, especially one
that includes tens of thousands of fast chargers, would go a long way toward
addressing the problem. If the 500,000 chargers are installed at a constant
rate, the network would comfortably exceed demand, as estimated in a 2019
report from the International Council on Clean Transportation, which suggested
that the US would need just over 100,000 public chargers in 100 major metro
areas.
In order to support the EV charger network, add capacity for all-electric
housing, and address other shortcomings of the electrical grid, Biden’s plan
proposes 20 gigawatts of high-voltage power lines and a ten-year extension of
clean energy tax credits, including a provision for energy storage. It also
calls for domestic supply chains to support battery manufacturing. Currently,
the US lags behind Europe and Asia in that sector. Production at Tesla, for
example, has been constrained by limited supplies. The provision supporting a
domestic supply chain, including raw and intermediate battery materials, would
be key to giving the sector a leg up. Previous efforts to create a battery
manufacturing industry in the US failed in part due to a nonexistent domestic
supply chain."
Via Glyn Moody, who wrote "sounds a good start"
Now if we could just get somethng similar in Australia - and indeed Labor have
just released a positive policy proposal, so a change of government might go a
long way.
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
