Biden’s EV Plan Needs Transmission Lines That Haven’t Been Built

President Joe Biden unveiled an ambitious plan to boost US sales of electric vehicles in the bid to fight climate change. But the infrastructure needed to charge all those cars doesn’t yet exist and would require a massive buildout of the nation’s transmission lines.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced emission standards Wednesday that would compel automakers to ensure two out of every three cars and light trucks sold in 2032 run on electricity. That gives utilities nine years to develop transmission infrastructure across the US, a blistering pace for projects that can take decades to permit and build.

Read More: Biden’s Toughest-Ever Auto Pollution Crackdown to Drive EV Sales

Utilities are pushing to build more power plants as the US economy becomes more electrified, but the lack of long-distance lines to carry that power is emerging as a key bottleneck. Transmission lines can stretch for hundreds of miles and typically require approvals from states, cities and private landowners. It’s already a problem, and adding millions of electric vehicles would further tax the grid, said Nikki Hsu, a utility analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence.

“There’s an infrastructure challenge,” said Hsu. “We need a lot of transmission to handle all the goals we need to accomplish.”

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Will Wade in New York at wwade4@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Brian Eckhouse at beckhouse@bloomberg.net

Millie Munshi

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