By Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — With spring one week away, a new season is long overdue for progress on West Virginia’s federally funded plan to build out electric vehicle infrastructure.
As West Virginia plots its path forward on the first phase of the plan, other states more advanced in implementation are featuring electric vehicles in their plans to lower greenhouse gas emissions whose impacts to which West Virginia is especially vulnerable.
The West Virginia Department of Transportation has been planning to choose one vendor to build and maintain the first phase of the state’s charging stations federally funded by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed into law by President Joe Biden.
In its original plan publication in July 2022, the DOT estimated it would award contracts for phase one for electric alternative fuel corridors in spring 2023.
Then in July, the DOT said it expected to award a vendor contract in the fourth quarter of 2023 or first quarter of 2024.
In January, Perry Keller, DOT Division of Highways chief economic development officer, said during a Jan. 23 DOT virtual public meeting to answer questions and solicit input on its electric vehicle infrastructure plan the agency hoped to have “something out in the next two to three weeks” regarding its procurement process. The DOT had been “collecting” what other states were doing, Keller said.
