Joint Office of Energy and Transportation Names Electric Vehicle Working Group Members

On August 3, 2023, the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation — created through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to facilitate collaboration between the U.S. Departments of Energy (DOE) and Transportation (DOT) — officially announced the members of its Electric Vehicle (EV) Working Group, an independent advisory board. Parties interested in the growth of EVs in the United States should take note of the group, which will coordinate and consult on the development, adoption, and integration of EVs into the transportation and energy systems of the United States.

The EV Working Group was created on June 8, 2022. By law, the group may have no more than 25 members, with up to 6 federal and 19 nonfederal stakeholders. The 23 members announced to date come from a range of stakeholders:

• federal agencies such as DOE and DOT, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Council on Environmental Quality, the General Services Administration, and the U.S. Postal Service
• industry representatives from the automotive, trucking, and public utility sectors
• state, local, and tribal governments as well as regional planning organizations
• representatives from organized labor and climate equity groups

As described in its charter, the EV Working Group is tasked to

• make recommendations regarding the development, adoption, and integration of light-, medium-, and heavy-duty EVs into the transportation and energy systems of the United States
• coordinate and consult with existing interagency working groups on fleet conversion or similar matters relating to EVs
• draft reports, no later than two years apart, describing the status of EV adoption including barriers and opportunities to scaling up EV adoption, examples of successful public and private models and demonstration projects that encourage electric vehicle adoption, analyses of efforts to overcome barriers, and analyses of estimated costs and benefits of any recommendations

The Working Group operates in accordance with the provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). As a FACA committee, the group will be subject to specified public process, including the Freedom of Information Act, offering a greater measure of transparency for interested stakeholders.

This post is as of the posting date stated above. Sidley Austin LLP assumes no duty to update this post or post about any subsequent developments having a bearing on this post.