Senate Energy Bill Contains $3.8B for Natural Gas Vehicle Conversion and Purchasing, $400M for Plug-in Vehicle Deployment

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The bill requires DOE to provide technical assistance to State, local and tribal governments to assist with the national deployment of plug-in electric drive vehicles. The technical assistance to be provided will include: training codes and standards for building and safety inspectors; ideas on how to expedite permits and inspections; and education and outreach on the various types of plug-in electric drive vehicles and the associated technology. It also provides grants for training first responders, electricians, contractors, and engineers who will be installing infrastructure, code inspection officials, dealers, mechanics, and others. Provides grants for programs in designing plug-in electric drive motor vehicles and associated components and infrastructure.

The bill directs the federal government to count electricity used to refuel a plug-in electric drive motor vehicle as an alternative fuel. Also, it directs the Federal Energy Management Program and the General Services Administration to compile a report on how many plug-in electric drive vehicles could be deployed in federal fleets based on needed functionality and costs.

Federal agencies are to request funding for these vehicles in their annual budget requests. Finally, it directs the Administrator of the General Services Administration to acquire and deploy plug-in electric drive vehicles to be used in a pilot program in federal fleets and authorizes funds to cover incremental costs.

The bill also creates a target Electric Drive Vehicle Deployment Communities Program—at least 5 and not more than 15 deployment communities that reflect diverse populations, geography, and a model for deploying electric drive motor vehicles. At least one deployment community will have population of less than 125,000. This is funded with the $400 million.

Other provisions include:

• Establishing an R&D program in DOE to work on all aspects of the development, production, and deployment of electric vehicles. This section also establishes a research, development, and demonstration program in the Department of Energy to identify and assess possible uses for vehicle batteries at the end of their useful life in a vehicle. It provides grants for selected demonstration projects and directs the Secretary of Energy to carry out a study on recycling materials from electric vehicles and batteries.

• Establishing a competition for the development of a 500-mile vehicle battery.

• Conduct a study identifying the raw materials needed to manufacture plug-in electric vehicles, batteries, and other components, to describe the known sources of these materials and the risk associated with their supply, and to identify ways to secure the supply chain of critical raw materials.

• Entering into an agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a study to identify what data that may be collected from electric vehicles, such as location, charging patterns and usage of electric vehicles. This study will be used to provide recommendations on procedures, technologies, and rules relating to the collection, storage and use of this data.

• Requiring electric utilities to consider the potential levels of plug-in penetration that they might expect to see on their systems in the near term, investigate the potential impacts on their transmission and distribution infrastructure, and plan for the deployment of electric vehicles in their service area.

• Providing loan guarantees for eligible entities that purchase more than 200 qualified automotive batteries in a calendar year for use in nonautomotive applications. This program will help attract battery manufacturing facilities to the US while plug-in electric drive vehicle production is still ramping up.

• Establishing a technical advisory committee to advise the Secretary of Energy on matters relating to plug-in electric drive vehicles. The committee is to coordinate with the Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Technical Advisory Committee and the Biomass Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee. The bill also establishes an Interagency Task Force, chaired by the Secretary of Energy, to coordinate federal actions related to plug-in electric drive vehicles and infrastructure.

Resources

• Detailed summary of Reid bill

• Full text of the Reid bill as of 27 July 2010