U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined a few elected Illinois leaders today in moving the discussion on electric vehicle infrastructure.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker started his day by opening up the nation's largest and longest running auto show, cutting the ribbon for 2022 in Chicago. Then Pritzker went to Bloomington, Ill. to join senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin and Transportation Secretary Pete Pete Buttigieg on federal funding for building a heavy infrastructure in Illinois.
"We're going to review the plans that the state's come back with," Buttigieg said. "They'll be due by August 1st. I have a feeling the governor wants to beat that deadline."
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Governor Pritzker has long said that by 2030, he wants 1 million EVs on Illinois roads.
"In order for us to be successful in EVs, we've got to have charging stations everywhere in this state," Pritzker said. "It's a plan that's been in the works for some time. But these dollars that are available for us to get directly from the Department of Transportation, this is something that we're going to be very aggressive about going after."
Both Buttigieg and Pritzker say that a good number of jobs will be created by the EV infrastructure buildout in addition to the positive climate impacts.