“We’ve been operating on a fossil fuel-based economy for 150 years. This is a big shift. It’s also a huge opportunity if we take advantage of it. Or, we bury our heads in the sand, and not take advantage of it, and let it happen to us,” Klein, then the recently arrived executive director of the federal Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, which manages the many projects funded by the 2021 federal infrastructure law, said.
“I think you should be driving the bus, not be under the bus,” he told the conference.
Today, Klein is no longer with the Joint Office. He left after the 2024 presidential election. Created by the Biden administration, the Joint Office — with its focus on advancing the use of electric vehicles and “alternative transportation” modes like cycling — has faced staffing changes under the Trump administration. But, its former executive director said, it survives.
“The office is still functioning and some of our team was just brought back on — probationary folks,” said Klein, in an email following an interview with Government Technology.
Klein served as co-founder at Cityfi, a consulting firm specializing in areas including smart cities planning, next-gen transportation and urban design, from August 2016-August 2022 according to LinkedIn. He is the former commissioner for both the Chicago and Washington, D.C., departments of transportation. He is the author of the book Start-Up City, and is taking time off from public service with plans to explore new professional options this summer.
The enthusiasm Klein expressed for new forms of mobility in Portland in April 2023 is still there. He said he still believes innovation starts with cooperation and partnerships. Just before his call with GovTech, Klein was in talks with a cycling agency in Copenhagen, Denmark, discussing ideas around how to continue to further new forms of mobility.
Similarly, Klein said, when he was tapped to lead the Joint Office, he positioned it to “foster a sense of collaboration. And that’s always been something in my career I’ve focused on.” Among its duties, the office was formed to manage a $5 billion program to build high-speed electric vehicle charging stations across the nation, and a $2.5 billion program focused on growing community charging infrastructure.
“It’s how do you break down the barriers between public and private understanding each other, and building trust with one another, and working together,” he said.
Currently, National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program funding is frozen, halting the development of hundreds of charging locations while new guidance for the program is established “to align with current U.S. [Department of Transportation] DOT policy and priorities,” according to a Feb. 6 department memo.
Much of NEVI's funds have not yet been distributed and spent. But 80 percent of its funding has been awarded and allocated to the various electric vehicle charging infrastructure programs states have fashioned. A full 61 sites are now open, according to the EV States Clearinghouse database dashboard, maintained by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials and the National Association of State Energy Officials. However, those projects only account for $32.2 million, per the dashboard, leaving the bulk of its nearly $5 billion in funding still to be distributed and spent.
If federal transportation leaders wanted to re-examine how the final 20 percent of the NEVI funding should be allocated — assuming it’s still being directed toward expanding EV charging infrastructure, which is how the measure was approved by Congress — that could be easier to accept, Klein said.
Frozen funding (which has been allocated, but not distributed) is affecting states like Missouri, which NEVI awarded $98.9 million to develop eight new charging locations and upgrades at 16 existing sites, according to the Missouri Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Deployment Plan. The projects have not yet begun. The state was on course to begin issuing a request for proposals in the 2024-25 fiscal year “when the federal NEVI funds were put on hold,” said Linda Wilson Horn, communications director for the Missouri Department of Transportation. “So we are on hold until something changes with the federal funding.”
Pennsylvania and Ohio have been some of the most aggressive states in developing and opening NEVI-funded charging locations. The two states account for 27 new federally funded high-speed charging locations, with at least four ports each.
“Pennsylvania hit the ground running with the NEVI program,” Zachary Appleby, deputy communications director at the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, said via email.
“The commonwealth has been a consistent leader by developing our own best practices and procedures, and by problem-solving as we went,” he added. “Because of this, we have been a resource to other states, providing guidance and learned experience through peer exchanges, direct feedback, and national committees.”
These leadership initiatives by states and cities have always been a launching ground for innovation, Klein said. And that spirit has never been more needed, he added, recalling efforts to develop bike infrastructure, incentives to help residents purchase an electric car or electric bike, or other projects to make the transportation system operate more sustainably.
“States and cities have a responsibility to their constituents to be responsible. And being responsible actually means thinking through the impact of what you’re doing, before you do it,” he added.
