Ashley Feeder

JMC 301

Holstege

30 September 2021

Local Government Story 3 - Deadline

Tempe discussed plans to incorporate electric vehicle charging stations along with sustainable

infrastructure on Thursday.

Tempe’s Sustainable and Livable Communities Council Committee met on Thursday afternoon

to discuss various ways to be greener and more efficient, specifically highlighting solar

permitting policies.

The discussion of solar readiness led to a call for the creation of electric charging station

infrastructure requirements to be produced.

Tempe City Councilmember Lauren Kuby brought this to the committee's attention, after she

said that she wanted to discuss codes for electric charging stations.

Kuby also asked what might be required for developers to begin building electric car charging

stations in new infrastructures.

“We know there’s been much talk in the federal government, I'm not sure what will happen with

the Build Back Better plans or maybe with reconciliation increased infrastructure, but there may

be a lot of funds that start to come our way. I don’t mean just the city of Tempe, but to Arizona

and to multi-family developers,” Kuby said.

She said that she believed that there is potential for the federal government to provide investment

for developers to build e-stations in their developments in the future.

Dino Accardo, Tempe Building Safety’s plan review manager, said that he wanted to look at

electric vehicle charging.

“Believe it or not, we are receiving a lot..some permits. I don’t want to say a lot. I would say we

are receiving some permits on E.V. charging, there is a lot going on,” said Accardo in regard to

electric vehicle charger permit requests.

“We need to be ready for that because we’re going to see an increased amount of electric vehicle

infrastructure and funding,” said Kuby.

Kuby said that she wanted Tempe Building Safety to incorporate the work and outreach they put

into solar readiness into e-charging stations so that the code would be ready for, “our new

reality.”

Jennifer Adams, a Tempe Councilmember, said that she thought that Kuby’s idea was great and

that she fully concurred.

Accardo said that he could have an electric vehicle charging code written up by as soon as the

next meeting on October 27th.

“We’ve managed to come up with a solar readiness appendix from a commercial standpoint. I

know that there’s already a code out there related to E.V. charging, so I don’t think that would be

a challenge.”

On August 5th, President Biden set a national goal that 50% of new car sales by 2030 be electric

vehicles.

In an article from E&E News, John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive

Innovation, said, “The auto industry has stepped up — investments in electrification globally

will exceed $330 billion by 2025. But all levels of government will need to do their part for this

challenge to succeed.”
The Tempe government is stepping up, starting with the Sustainable and Livable Communities

Council Committee.

On September 7th, The New York Times published an article, “Biden’s Electric Car Plans Hinge

on Having Enough Chargers.” 

In it, Asad Hussain, a senior analyst at PitchBook research firm, said, “E.V. charging

infrastructure is the single biggest barrier to E.V. adoption.” 

Tempe’s early action on electric vehicle charging infrastructure could be a way to combat this

barrier.

Three electric-focused vehicle producers: Lucid, Nikola Corp., and ElectraMeccanica all boast

Arizona as their manufacturing hub.

With three electric car factories in Arizona, there will need to be places to charge them and

people to utilize them.

Arizona, specifically the Phoenix Metropolitan area, could be just the place.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/07/business/energy-environment/electric-vehicle-charging-

stations.html

https://www.eenews.net/articles/bidens-ev-plan-details-drama-and-doubts/