As part of his more than $2-trillion spending package (“The American Jobs Plan”), President Biden is proposing a $174-billion investment in the EV market in the US. Among the broad elements of the proposal are:

• Enabling automakers to spur domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retool factories to compete globally, and support American workers to make batteries and EVs.

• Giving consumers point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EVs, while ensuring that these vehicles are affordable for all families and manufactured by workers with good jobs.

• Establishing grant and incentive programs for state and local governments and the private sector to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, while promoting strong labor, training, and installation standards.

• Replacing 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrifying at least 20% of the school bus fleet through a new Clean Buses for Kids Program at the Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the Department of Energy.

• Electrifying the federal fleet, including that of the United States Postal Service.

Climate science and clean energy. As part of the package, President Biden is also calling on Congress to invest $35 billion in the full range of solutions needed to achieve technology breakthroughs in clean energy technology and clean energy jobs. This includes launching ARPA-C to develop new methods for reducing emissions and building climate resilience, as well as expanding across-the-board funding for climate research.

In addition to a $5-billion increase in funding for other climate-focused research, his plan will invest $15 billion in demonstration projects for climate R&D priorities, including utility-scale energy storage, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, advanced nuclear, rare earth element separations, floating offshore wind, biofuel/bioproducts, quantum computing, and electric vehicles, as well as strengthening US technological leadership in these areas in global markets.