Representative Steven Horsford (NV-04) attends the Clean Energy Jobs & Justice Forum at North Las Vegas City Hall Thursday, June 10, 2021.
Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022 | 2:42 p.m.
U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford, D-Nev., and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., will hold a news conference 10 a.m. Thursday at the Nevada Energy Office to highlight the $38 million Nevada will receive from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to expand the state’s electric vehicle charging network.
They will discuss the role the funding will play in speeding up the adoption of electric vehicles, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and meeting Nevada’s climate goals, Horsford’s office said.
Under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, Nevada will receive $38 million over five years for the expansion of the electric vehicle charging network, and the state will also have the opportunity to apply for $2.5 billion in grant funding for electric vehicle charging.
Expansion of electric vehicle use started a few years ago with the Nevada Electric Highway program, which would aim to install charging stations every 50 miles along U.S. 95, before expanding to other highways, including Interstate 80, Interstate 15, U.S. 93 and U.S. 50.
The number of electric vehicles in Nevada has been increasing steadily, going from 9,296 in fiscal 2020 to 11,040 electric vehicle registrations as of June 2021, according to the Department of Energy’s Alternative Fuels Data Center.
But the expanded use of electric vehicles throughout the world to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions has brought with it other concerns.
Mining of lithium is required to make the electric car batteries, and a lithium mine slated north of Las Vegas is an example of the environmental tradeoff, where the government argues that a rare wildflower that grows in the area should be protected.
A few Nevada tribes have also expressed opposition to the mining, saying their ancestors were massacred in the late 1800s at one of the proposed sites.
