July 18, 2022The first phase of funding — from a Volkswagen settlement — covered installation costs for several chargers, like this one at Custom Seafood Processors in Soldotna.
Curtis Thayer, executive director of AEA, said Alaska is getting about $50 million of the $2.5 billion that’s reserved in the bill for states through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program. AEA has already been working on a nine-charger corridor between Homer and Fairbanks. To date, funding for that project has come from a 2017 settlement with Volkswagen over a diesel emission scandal.
“Then, when we look at the Marine Highway System, now we can do this in Kodiak and Ketchikan and Juneau and Sitka and Valdez,” Thayer said.
Alaska needs to be mining its own Lithium Antimony and quartz to make safer batteries domestically. This infrastructure bill does nothing in the long term. Alaskan don't need chinese batteries that catch fire and fail in winter.