Congratulations President Joe Biden and congressional leaders for investing in an infrastructure plan that is truly transformational. This bipartisan bill will allow Lion Electric and others to build clean school buses for kids and communities and grow EV infrastructure as we move to build back better to a clean transportation future.

Why is this infrastructure bill so important to combat climate change? Here’s how the bipartisan infrastructure bill will help Lion Electric invest in American jobs and American communities, while cleaning up the air for our children.

The bipartisan infrastructure bill makes historic investments in heavy-duty zero-emission transportation, including:

$5 billion for clean school buses in the communities that need them most, with $2.5B specifically for all-electric school buses, which Lion has been deploying across the country since 2016.

$7.5B for EV infrastructure to help accomplish the President’s goal of building 500,000 EV chargers. Our LionEnergy team has worked with school districts, fleets, and elected officials to help plan out energy needs for our EVs and integrate them into fleets as efficiently as possible.

The Surface Transportation Block Grant Program, which allocates nearly $275 billion for federal-aid highway programs and $130 billion for rail and public transit, has had its scope expanded to now fund EV charging infrastructure and vehicle-to-grid infrastructure as well. This includes the construction of facilities that aid intermodal development for new transportation technologies, which is critical to expanding heavy-duty clean transportation.

Utility Rate Reforms and Incentives now directs states with ratemaking authority to consider measures which promote electrification of the transportation sector, such as affordable and equitable EV charging options for residential, commercial and public charging infrastructure. This could make deploying EV fleets even more cost-effective in the future.