Connect with us

Washington, D.C

EV charging infrastructure in DC starting to get a federal boost – WTOP News

Published

on

EV charging infrastructure in DC starting to get a federal boost – WTOP News


The broken and outdated EV charger on Benning Road, not far from Anacostia Avenue, is getting a makeover, D.C. officials announced Thursday.

This page contains a video which is being blocked by your ad blocker.
In order to view the video you must disable your ad blocker.

EV charging infrastructure in DC starting to get a federal boost

Ford is the latest car manufacturer to announce a scaling back in production of electric vehicles due to a lack of demand, as customers voice frustrations over high costs and a lack of charging infrastructure. The federal government, however, is trying to beef up the country’s charging capabilities.

Advertisement

Those efforts include a rehabbed charging station that broke ground in D.C. on Thursday.

“Over 300 people use this charger to charge their vehicles. So it’s very important, as you can see. This is the main corridor for the city,” said D.C. director of the Department of Energy and Environment Richard Jackson during the groundbreaking.

The broken and outdated EV charger on Benning Road, not far from Anacostia Avenue, has not been functional for two years, according to Jackson.

It will be the first charging station in the country to be rehabbed using funding from a federal grant from the Federal Highway Administration’s Electric Vehicle Charging Reliability and Accessibility Accelerator, which was passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law in 2021.

“This is a really accelerated program, because we know that people can’t be going to a charger and not getting a charge, just like when you go to a gas station you expect to get what you need,” deputy Federal Highway administrator Kristin White told WTOP.

Advertisement

The FHA’s program awarded approximately $148.8 million in total in grant funding across D.C. and 19 other states. The 24 applicants received funding to repair or replace broken EV charging ports.

The new station on Benning Road will triple the speed of charging capabilities and will be able to charge four electric vehicles at once.

But with car companies scaling production, are these chargers still needed? White thinks so.

“JD Power and Associates has reminded us that quarter over quarter, compared to previous years, Americans are adopting and purchasing electric vehicles at increasingly faster rates,” White told WTOP.

White said the Biden Administration’s timeline to see 500,000 publicly available chargers by 2030 is on track with a peak of investment in occurring in 2027 and 2028.

Advertisement

“Which does very much align with some of the timelines that you’re reading from some of these auto companies,” said White.

Ford, meanwhile, abandoned manufacturing a fully electric, three-row SUV and is focusing on other electric vehicles, including trucks and a new commercial van. The automaker lost $2.46 billion on EVs in the first half of the year.

Officials plan to open the Benning Road EV charging station in two years.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Washington, D.C

Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week

Published

on

Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week


4 things to know about the weather:

  1. Chances of rain in the morning
  2. Gusty Sunday
  3. Chilly Monday
  4. Temps will rise again through the work week

Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.

After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.

The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.

Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.

Advertisement

However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.

QuickCast

SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s

MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s

Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Washington, D.C

‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington

Published

on

‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington


The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.

In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.

“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”

Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.

Advertisement

Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.

“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.

“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”

Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”

A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.

Advertisement
Rachel Reeves posted this image on Instagram from Washington DC on Thursday with the message: ‘Friends that run together – work together.’ Photograph: Rachel Reeves/Instagram

Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.

Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.

But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.

“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”

At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.

Advertisement

The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.

Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.

For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.

“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.

“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”

Advertisement

For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.

In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.

Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.

“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”





Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Washington, D.C

Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos

Published

on

Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos


Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.

Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.

Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.

Comment with Bubbles
Advertisement

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT

You can learn more and book your table here.



Source link

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending