LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – New places to charge up are coming to the Lehigh Valley and beyond.<\/p>\n
Electric vehicle chargers will become more accessible in the area as part of a national program, and Pennsylvania’s transportation secretary was in Bethlehem to announce the 32 million dollars in funding to make it happen.<\/p>\n
The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program will fund up to 85 new electric vehicle chargers in Eastern Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
This new round of funding is focusing on where you are.<\/p>\n
“This means chargers at grocery stores, economic development facilities, doctor’s offices, places of worship, libraries, and assets across the region. Places where people who live in a community go,” said PennDOT Secretary Mike Carroll.<\/p>\n
Any business or government in the Eastern part of the state is eligible to apply. The best candidates will be chosen, and the funds will offset 80% of the costs associated with the charging stations.<\/p>\n
“For the Lehigh Valley, this investment is more than electric vehicle charging stations. It’s about economic competitiveness, infrastructure readiness and preparing our transportation network for the future,” said Heather Heeter with the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce Transportation Committee.<\/p>\n
The money will expand the footprint not only for those who have electric vehicles now but for the many expected to turn to electric in the future.<\/p>\n
“When you’re thinking about the future, and you’re thinking about infrastructure, about how people are getting around, where they’re parking, where you’re delivering jobs, you need to be thinking long term,” said Bethlehem Mayor J. William Reynolds.<\/p>\n
As for the need, local leaders say it’s evident.<\/p>\n
“We are seeing more and more of them on the road. The cost of those vehicles is coming down, so it’s more approachable for many people as well,” said Becky Bradley, Executive Director, Lehigh Valley Planning Commission.<\/p>\n
“You go to put gas in your SUV like I did a few, you know, a few days ago, and it was $92,” she said. “So it would be cheaper for me to transition to an electric vehicle when I need to replace my car.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEHIGH VALLEY, Pa. – New places to charge up are coming to the Lehigh Valley and beyond. Electric…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,120019,120018,34877,157,57886],"class_list":["post-288755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-car-chargers","tag-electric-vehicle-chargers","tag-electric-vehicles","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-national-electric-vehicle-infrastructure-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}