EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The City of El Paso will receive $15 million from the federal government to install a total of 74 Electric Vehicle (EV) charging ports at publicly accessible locations across the city.
In an exclusive interview with ABC-7, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, said El Paso was selected to receive funding after the City presented a project that demonstrated good vision and meeting a need that included disadvantaged communities that need and deserve charging.
“This is part of a bigger strategy, which is to make sure that every American can find a charging station when you need one. Just the same as you can find a gas station when you’re getting ready to go on a road trip,” said Secretary Buttigieg.
Secretary Buttigieg said this money is coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, an initiative from President Biden that seeks to improve infrastructure in roads, bridges, ports of entries, and airports among other things.
A city spokesperson said that the application to the federal government for this grant was composed primarily of a partnership that included the City of El Paso, El Paso Electric, El Paso County, and outlying communities including Socorro, Fabens, and Horizon.
The City says their strategy is to create a regional network of EV charging infrastructure to meet future charging demand that is not going to be met by the private sector.
Omar Martinez, Grants and Strategic Initiatives Manager with the City of El Paso, said that while the City finalizes a contract with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration, they will begin community outreach to ensure that the public is aware of where the charging locations will be located and make sure the location of these truly reflects the needs of the community.
“Ideally, we can begin the public outreach process within three months. So roughly April of 2024. I can only guarantee project implementation timeline after we sign the agreement with the U.S. Federal Highway Administration. Again, six-months from now. So we’re expecting begin maybe in the middle to late fall of 2024,” said Martinez in regard to the timeline of this project which estimated time will be of two years once the agreement is signed.
Martinez also mentioned that El Paso Electric is contributing an additional $3.75 million to the project as as 20% local match.
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