ICYMI: Under President Biden, Electric Vehicle Sales Surge and Major Offshore Wind Project Starts Delivering Power

Thanks to President Biden's historic climate and economic agenda, the first week of the New Year brought with it major news for America's electric vehicle and offshore wind future. In 2023, more than 1.4 million electric vehicles were sold in the United States—a 50% increase in one year. Under President Biden, EV sales have more than quadrupled, with more than four million EVs now on the road. Additionally, this week, the nation's first approved large-scale offshore wind project, Vineyard Wind, began generating clean, affordable power for the people of Massachusetts.

While Republicans in Congress continue to deny the very existence of climate change and threaten new investments in communities across the country, the Biden-Harris Administration will continue to deliver on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, which is lowering energy costs for hardworking families, bolstering America's energy security, and creating thousands of good-paying union jobs.

Read more below:

CNBC: Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Squawk Box

SECRETARY GRANHOLM: We've got about 170,000 public chargers available across the United States today. We're adding about 900 per week. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law put $7.5 billion into expanding that further. We think that by 2026 we'll have about 500,000 charging -- publicly available charging stations across the country… All 50 states have now had plans approved for the rollout of charging stations that are from that Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. It's very exciting. Ohio and New York, in the past couple of weeks, had ribbon cuttings on their first charging stations through the President's Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

Politico: Electric vehicle sales topped 1.4 million in 2023, feds say
[James Bikales, 1/5/24]

Automakers sold more than 1.4 million electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles in the United States in 2023, bolstered by a late-year surge that helped bring the total number of EVs on the road to more than 4 million, federal officials said Friday. The sales showed a significant pickup in December, when 9.8 percent of vehicles sold were electric, Michael Berube, the Energy Department's deputy assistant secretary for sustainable transportation and fuels, told reporters on Friday. "We're moving beyond just the very early adopters and we are starting to move to the next phase of real significant growth in the marketplace," Berube said, pushing back on the notion that EV sales slowed in the second half of last year.

Associated Press: Two large offshore wind sites are sending power to the US grid for the first time
[Jennifer McDermott, 1/3/24]

For the first time in the United States, turbines are sending electricity to the grid from the sites of two large offshore wind farms.

[…] In what might have been a fatal blow, federal regulators delayed Vineyard Wind by holding off on issuing a key environmental impact statement in 2019. Massachusetts Democratic Rep. William Keating said at the time the Trump administration was trying to stymie the renewable energy project just as it was coming to fruition.

The Biden administration signed off on it in 2021. Construction began onshore in Barnstable, Massachusetts. This spring, massive tower sections from Portugal arrived at the Port of New Bedford to be assembled out on the water.

The New York Times: Massachusetts Switches On Its First Large Offshore Wind Farm
[Brad Plumer, 1/4/24]

Vineyard Wind is the nation's second utility-scale offshore wind farm to start generating electricity. Another large project off the coast of New York, South Fork Wind, began producing power in December. Once completed, South Fork will be capable of producing 132 megawatts of electricity

[…] The Biden administration has made offshore wind a priority, essentially aiming to create an industry from scratch.

WBUR: Vineyard Wind, country's first large-scale offshore wind project, is producing clean electricity
[Miriam Wasser, 1/3/24]

Electricity from the country's first large-scale offshore wind project is officially flowing into Massachusetts and helping to power the New England grid.

[…] After winning Massachusetts' first round of offshore wind project bids in 2018, Vineyard Wind — a joint venture between Avangrid Renewables and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners — entered the long, and at times bumpy, federal permitting process. The review was supposed to take two years, but in 2019, the Trump administration, which was hostile toward offshore wind, unexpectedly hit the pause button. The delay cost millions, threatened to upend the project's tight timeline, and once again, raised questions about whether the U.S. could actually build a robust offshore wind industry.

[…] With the election of Biden in 2020, things began looking up for Vineyard Wind and the dozen or so other proposed projects in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions. The administration resumed Vineyard Wind's permitting process shortly after taking office, and committed to the 2030 goal of 30,000 megawatts.

Boston Globe: With a flip of the switch, offshore wind energy enters New England's grid
[Sabrina Shankman, 1/3/24]

Wind power from south of Martha's Vineyard was delivered to the New England grid late Tuesday night — a step Governor Maura Healey hailed as "a historic moment for the American offshore wind industry."