I think that might be an overly romantic or simple view of large organizations and their ability to get work done, lest of all government work.
I don’t know the specifics of the implementation plan for this, nor do I know the governance of the chargers moving forward.
After the chargers are installed, they have the be maintained and otherwise overseen in some way. That means they have to fit in some sort of governance structure. This can take the form of delegating to subagencies, or establishing agreements between agencies so that the federal government can get these things built. If they place them at rest stops, which seems like a good place, they just have to get an MOU in place with the Dept of Transportation.
But what about underserved communities? Who determines those communities? (Figuring out not just what constitutes metrics for eligibility, but also coming up with maps indicating those areas is going to be a research project that takes time to figure out.) Once underserved areas are figured out, how do you work with them? Do you place chargers at local parks? Do you partner with local businesses to place chargers?
Each location to be installed is likely going to require contracts with whoever is in charge of the property, and then also working with city, county, and state authorities and utilities to ensure building permits, power, leasing rights, and other specifics. If these are being installed on property belonging to other levels of government, how does the monitoring device connect to the internet? Most governments don’t allow unvetted devices onto their networks, so every government at each level will need to do security audits of the hardware (even if the security audits are bullshit). If the local or state government is hostile to electric vehicles or heck, even just the Biden administration, how will permitting and contract approvals go? Will localities pass laws to prevent chargers from being built, or tax them egregiously? Will the local authorities require onerous rules to make it painful to build them? If the local utility insists that the local transmission lines can’t carry the power needed for the charger and they need either a payment to upgrade the distribution lines, or to set forward a rate case to up their utility rates, those sorts of things can take years to figure out, much less execute.
And then vendors - with each player, will they require their own license agreement with the vendor? Does each vendor use only components that the Federal Government deems trustworthy? These will have to get hooked into computer networks, and the Fed may not want some random networking chips with known security vulnerabilities in any network cards. Many states require that vendors do not have an endemnity clause in their contracts, so the vendor can be sued. This usually requires serious renegotiation of every contract for every player, and that can take months for just one phase of each project.
There’s so many moving pieces to this, and I guess I want to caution against viewing it as a single person deciding to do something.
It’s more like 500 or so people working with about 5k people, who may be intentionally setting roadblocks, or within the jurisdiction of others who are setting roadblocks, while also working around a complex and convoluted system that could be exploited by others for their own greed.
I’ve heard the pace of this project will speed up with time. It’s just a matter of getting some groundwork out of the way. Or not! Because who knows how the election will proceed and ensuring national security via robust transportation infrastructure will be one of the first things republicans kill - likely using justification that progress wasn’t made fast enough.
And all of them have jobs that aren’t this one program.
It’s way, way harder than than you think it is.
I have to work with a vendor on a three year contract cycle and negotiations take so long we never stop. We just finish one 3-year ELA and start the next. There’s nothing easy or fast in any of that.
I think that might be an overly romantic or simple view of large organizations and their ability to get work done, lest of all government work.
I don’t know the specifics of the implementation plan for this, nor do I know the governance of the chargers moving forward.
After the chargers are installed, they have the be maintained and otherwise overseen in some way. That means they have to fit in some sort of governance structure. This can take the form of delegating to subagencies, or establishing agreements between agencies so that the federal government can get these things built. If they place them at rest stops, which seems like a good place, they just have to get an MOU in place with the Dept of Transportation.
But what about underserved communities? Who determines those communities? (Figuring out not just what constitutes metrics for eligibility, but also coming up with maps indicating those areas is going to be a research project that takes time to figure out.) Once underserved areas are figured out, how do you work with them? Do you place chargers at local parks? Do you partner with local businesses to place chargers?
Each location to be installed is likely going to require contracts with whoever is in charge of the property, and then also working with city, county, and state authorities and utilities to ensure building permits, power, leasing rights, and other specifics. If these are being installed on property belonging to other levels of government, how does the monitoring device connect to the internet? Most governments don’t allow unvetted devices onto their networks, so every government at each level will need to do security audits of the hardware (even if the security audits are bullshit). If the local or state government is hostile to electric vehicles or heck, even just the Biden administration, how will permitting and contract approvals go? Will localities pass laws to prevent chargers from being built, or tax them egregiously? Will the local authorities require onerous rules to make it painful to build them? If the local utility insists that the local transmission lines can’t carry the power needed for the charger and they need either a payment to upgrade the distribution lines, or to set forward a rate case to up their utility rates, those sorts of things can take years to figure out, much less execute. And then vendors - with each player, will they require their own license agreement with the vendor? Does each vendor use only components that the Federal Government deems trustworthy? These will have to get hooked into computer networks, and the Fed may not want some random networking chips with known security vulnerabilities in any network cards. Many states require that vendors do not have an endemnity clause in their contracts, so the vendor can be sued. This usually requires serious renegotiation of every contract for every player, and that can take months for just one phase of each project.
There’s so many moving pieces to this, and I guess I want to caution against viewing it as a single person deciding to do something.
It’s more like 500 or so people working with about 5k people, who may be intentionally setting roadblocks, or within the jurisdiction of others who are setting roadblocks, while also working around a complex and convoluted system that could be exploited by others for their own greed.
I’ve heard the pace of this project will speed up with time. It’s just a matter of getting some groundwork out of the way. Or not! Because who knows how the election will proceed and ensuring national security via robust transportation infrastructure will be one of the first things republicans kill - likely using justification that progress wasn’t made fast enough.
An estimated FIFTY THOUSAND people work for the DoT. They should have figured all of those questions out, none of it is particularly hard.
And all of them have jobs that aren’t this one program.
It’s way, way harder than than you think it is.
I have to work with a vendor on a three year contract cycle and negotiations take so long we never stop. We just finish one 3-year ELA and start the next. There’s nothing easy or fast in any of that.