EV Charging Resources and Technical Assistance for Tribal Nations (Text Version)

This is a text version of EV Charging Resources and Technical Assistance for Tribal Nations, presented on Nov. 15, 2023.

Transcript

Webinar: EV Charging Resources and Technical Assistance for Tribal Nations

Shelbi Small, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation: Awesome. Thank you so much, Bridget. And hello, and good afternoon, everybody. I'm so glad you guys could join us today. And I really appreciate your time and hope that this is super helpful for everybody. My name is Shelbi Small, I'm the tribal technical assistance lead at the Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. And I'll be presenting on the Joint Office EV Charging Resources and Technical Assistance for Tribal Nations.

Sorry. So, the Joint Office was established in 2021 by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law which we refer to as the bill throughout the rest of the presentation. It was established through a memorandum of understanding between the US Department of Energy and transportation. The Joint office's mission is to assist in the acceleration of an electrified transportation system that is affordable, convenient, equitable, reliable, and safe by providing guidance, technical assistance, and analysis to support several programs.

In the past year, tribal activities at the Joint Office have included contributing to the National EV Initiative for tribal nations where we collaborated with federal agency partners to commit to taking steps to ensure that benefits of transportation, electrification, extends to tribal communities. We also have created and updated the tribal resource page through the driveelectric.gov Joint Office site.

We are developing a tribal engagement strategy to ensure incorporation of tribal community perspectives into decision-making moving forward. And we are also providing technical assistance including navigating funding opportunities and implementation for EV charging infrastructure. All right, I would now like to introduce our relationship with the White House Council on Native American Affairs.

Prosperity and resilience for all tribal nations is the vision of the White House Council on Native American Affairs. And it endeavors towards this vision through collaborative interagency work across the executive branch, regular and meaningful tribal federal engagement, and by fostering an all of government approach in meeting treaty and trust obligations by tribes.

So, there are actually 10 agencies here on the slide who have come together to form an EV-specific subcommittee within the White House council on Native American Affairs. And this includes the US Departments of Labor, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, housing and Urban Development, as well as the Department of the Interior, Department of Transportation, the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the General Service Administration.

In 2022, a National Tribal EV Initiative was committed to by the White House Council on Native American Affairs. And these agencies made commitments within that initiative. So, the tribal EV initiative goal is to ensure that tribal nations are included in the EV future of the country. Federal resources for EV development are equitably shared and supportive of tribal economies. And that the physical buildout of a national EV network includes tribal lands and Native communities.

The– so I'm sorry, go back one, on one slide, Bridget. So, the WHCNAA website, I'm going to call– I say WHCNAA, I'm so sorry. The White House council on Native American Affairs website is at the bottom of the slide here. They have some really awesome resources on there including the National Electric Vehicle Initiative for Tribal Nations Webinar, the tribal power preference listening session. As well as dates and registration for future tribal consultation events and other resources. Thank you.

So now I want to talk about the National EV Initiative for tribal nations through the White House council on Native American Affairs. So, each of those 10– most of those 10 agencies have made agency-specific commitments in the deliverables to these commitments are to be announced at the tribal Nations Summit this winter. These commitments include those on the slide. Here, there are just a couple of the whole list of commitments including that the Joint Office will develop, host, and update a tribal resource page on driveelectric.gov to provide education, technical assistance, and funding opportunities for tribes to deploy EV infrastructure.

USDA will prepare a tribal EV companion to the DOT's rural EV toolkit featuring examples of EV charging station projects in collaboration across Indian country and Native communities. Department of Interior and Department of Transportation will map tribal nations within the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure geographic constraints.

The Department of Energy will support tribal nation’s role in the EV battery supply chain through the bipartisan infrastructure law by funding opportunities supporting battery manufacturing, recycling, and material processing. DOE will also work with Clean Cities Coalitions through the Clean Cities Energy and Environmental Initiative to develop local partnerships with tribal communities, facilitate community engagement, and provide technical assistance related to EVs and EV infrastructure deployment.

So, a full list of these commitments can be found at the bia.gov/whcnaa and on the driveelectric.gov/tribalnations page. As we're all probably pretty aware, oh, go back one slide. Oh, no, I'm so sorry. All right, you were right. So, I will now talk about program updates funding opportunities.

So, the Joint Office is providing support on for the US Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, Federal Transit Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency. So now as we are all aware, there are multiple benefits to tribal communities through National EV charging infrastructure deployment. These benefits include improving clean transportation access through the location of chargers.

Contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses, decreasing the transportation energy cost burden, reducing environmental exposures to transmission emissions, providing training such as apprenticeships, and pre-apprenticeship programs and jobs for the full supply chain not only for electricians but within IT and manufacturing as well as other areas. And also increasing energy resilience and the ability for communities to participate in program design and implementation.

Immediate term bill priorities for the Joint Office include providing guidance, technical assistance, and analysis support to the following programs.

We have the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula program, the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary grant program, the Low or No Emissions Grant program for transit, and the Clean School Bus program for US EPA. We’re also going to talk a little bit about the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure or NEVI formula program. And it was $5 billion that was distributed over all of the states to build out a National EV network along their alternative fuel corridors.

The NEVI charging stations are to follow the program guidance which is up on the slide. It includes: public charging stations must be installed every 50 miles along the states portions of the interstate highway system in no more than one travel mile from the interstate highway. They must have direct current fast charging in at least four combined charging system ports. And each station should have a power capability at or above 600 kilowatts in support at least 150 kilowatts per port simultaneously across those four ports for charging. The distribution of EV charging infrastructure across the state should specifically target locations and benefits to rural communities underserved and overburdened communities, and disadvantaged communities including tribal lands through the analysis of existing service to these areas in the state.

As this funding is meant to be utilized to reach a fully built out status on the alternative fuel corridors by states, when the status is met it is at the state's discretion what projects they will move forward with the remaining NEVI funds. So, after a full build out, these funds could potentially be spent on community chargers on tribal lands. Each state does have a NEVI plan in place, and those plans were just updated this summer with year two plan updates.

Let's see. And I recommend that if you're interested in partnering with your state or getting at those funds in any way, definitely reach out to your state DOT office to begin discussions regarding future partnerships and funding opportunities or definitely feel free to reach out to myself in the Joint Office, and we can connect you with your State Department of Transportation offices.

Tribal land– sorry, go back one, here. Tribal lands and governments were included in the efforts on NEVI in public engagement of EV charging systems. This includes– this effort includes states engaging in community outreach and participation with rural, tribal, and disadvantaged communities to facilitate equitable and accessible deployment of EV charging infrastructure. Next slide, please.

So, I just wanted to mention the equity considerations were added to the NEVI year to plan updates this year in 2023. The Joint Office published a Community Engagement Tips for EV infrastructure Deployment help sheet that has been passed along to each state to assist them in identifying the types of engagement that are needed, and how to go about that engagement for their NEVI year to year plan updates that were due August 1, 2023.

This help sheet includes strategies for highlighting engagement and identifying opportunities with tribal communities including tribal engagement activities and opportunities identified in tribal communities. The NEVI year 2 plan updates have been approved and they can be found on each state's NEVI web page.

I'll now talk about the discretionary Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant. The CFI grant program will use funding to strategically deploy publicly accessible electric vehicle charging and alternative fueling infrastructure in urban and rural communities. This will be done in publicly accessible locations including downtown areas, local neighborhoods in particularly in underserved and disadvantaged communities in addition to a long designated alternative fuel corridors.

From the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there is $2.5 billion over five years available between the corridor and community charging grants. And fiscal year 2022 and 2023 funding was combined this past round in the amount of $700 million through grants.gov. We are anticipating award announcements for round one by the end of 2023. And I would just like to let everybody now start thinking about applying for the next round in 2024. If you have any questions, definitely get with us at the Joint Office.

So, this program is divided into two distinct grant programs. There's a Corridor Program. It's to deploy electric vehicle charging and hydrogen propane natural gas fueling infrastructure along designated alternative fuel corridors.

In the community charging program is to install electric vehicle charging and alternative fuel in locations on public roads, schools, parks, and in publicly accessible parking facilities. Eligible applicants to this funding opportunity include states or political subdivisions. Metropolitan planning organizations, unit of local governments, US territories, and Indian tribes.

So now we'll talk a little bit about eligible activities for each of these programs. The quarter grant program eligible activities include contracting with a private entity for acquisition and installation of eligible infrastructure, providing a private entity with operating assistance for the first five years of operation after the installation of eligible infrastructure, and acquisition and installation of traffic control devices located in the right of way.

Community grant eligible activities include construction or reconstruction, and the acquisition of real property directly related to the project. Development, phase activities including planning, feasibility analysis, revenue forecasting, environmental review, preliminary engineering, and design work. And then educational and community engagement activities to develop and implement educational programs through partnerships.

And a little bit about that corridor charging program. There is a minimum anticipated award of $1 million and no maximum award size. Now, the stations must be located along the designated alternative fuel corridor for this corridor charging grant. The charging station must be within one mile, and other alternative fuels must be within five miles of that alternative fuel corridor. It must be publicly accessible. You must use funds to contract with a private entity through this grant program. You must address environmental justice and it must be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities.

Now to some requirements of the community charging grant program. The award size has a minimum anticipated award of $500,000 with a maximum award of $15 million. For this community charging grant, the chargers must be located on any publicly accessible road or in any publicly accessible location such as parking facilities, public schools, public parks, or in public accessible parking facilities owned or managed by a private entity.

This is where it differs from the corridor program where in the community program, you may use funds to contract with a private entity. In the corridor program, you had to use funds, you must use funds to contract with that private entity. And all other requirements are the same as the corridor grants. So, I just want to talk a little bit about the community charging grants. This is really where the opportunity for tribes comes in.

For the community program, tribes are allowed to satisfy the non-federal match portion with tribal transportation funds. And the Department of Transportation is considering the following priorities when making award decisions for the CFI program. These include safety, climate change and sustainability, equity, and justice, workforce development, job quality, and wealth creation.

The bill provides– oh, let's talk about the Clean School Bus program. Yes, the bill provides $5 billion over five years in which half of the total funding is dedicated to zero emission school buses. And the other half for either zero emission or clean school buses. The EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality clean school bus grant program will incentivize and accelerate the replacement of existing school buses with Clean and zero emission school buses.

School bus upgrades funded under this program will result in cleaner air on the buses, in the bus loading areas and in the communities in which they operate. Eligible activities for this program include the replacement of existing internal combustion engine school buses with electric propane or compressed natural gas school buses, as well as the purchase of electric vehicle supply equipment infrastructure and installations.

Applicants for this program include Indian tribes, tribal organizations, or tribally controlled schools responsible for the purchase, lease, license, or contract for service of school buses or for providing school bus service for a Bureau of Indian Affairs funded school. Funding prioritizations for this program include one: a high need for local educational agencies; two: rural school districts; three: the Bureau of Indian Affairs funded school districts; and four: school districts that have received basic support payments for children who reside on Indian land.

In 2022, 28 tribal applicants were awarded rebates that funded 200 clean school buses on tribal lands. The 2023 rebate program is now open through January 31 2024. And if you have any questions about applying to this program, please direct them to the driveelectric.gov tribal nations contact form or you can visit the epa.gov/cleanschoolbus right there at the bottom of the slide to get some more information on that.

All right, so a little information on the Federal Transit Administration. Low or no emission and bus facility program they received $1.22 billion in funding for this program. The program is to assist in the financing of buses and bus facilities capital projects including replacing, rehabilitating, purchasing or leasing buses or related equipment and rehabilitating purchasing constructing or leasing bus-related facilities. Eligible applicants for this program include designated recipients, states, local government authorities, or federally recognized Indian tribes.

Fiscal year 2023 notice of funding opportunity did close in April of 2023. And awards were announced in June and include three tribal awards. So, this is really exciting. We do have the Seneca Nation of Indians in Western New York. They will receive nearly $6 million to replace an outdated maintenance facility with a new building that will serve as an operation hub for the Seneca Nation Department of Transportation including the Seneca Transit System.

The White Earth Reservation Business Committee and Public Transit will receive funding to buy low emission buses with electronic fare box systems to replace older vehicles. These new buses will enable the agency to reduce fuel costs while continuing to provide much needed bus service in rural communities and on the reservation in North Minnesota, Northwest Minnesota. In the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma also will receive funding to build a bus maintenance facility and buy propane powered transit vehicles as well as a propane fueling station.

All right, so now I'm going to talk a little bit about the Joint Office technical assistance for tribal nations. We have put together a tribal resource page on electric.gov site. This page includes technical assistance in many resources for EV charging infrastructure. So, the technical assistance and resource page for tribal nations was actually established in November of 2022 through one of the– through the commitment through the JO through the National EV Initiative White House Council on Native American Affairs.

So, the Joint Office actually offers technical assistance for tribes including the following, planning for deployment of EV Chargers and zero emission fueling infrastructure, on-site energy storage, and mobile power generation, power needs analysis and tips for working with your local utility, strategic planning for fleet electrification, fleet transition planning and strategy, vehicle procurement, as well as others listed on the slide. These are just examples of the technical assistance that can be provided by the Joint Office.

Please feel free to email us, get on that contact form, and let us know what other technical assistance you guys would like to see or what is needed out there. We would definitely like to get that to you, guys.

So, there is a technical assistance one on one help sheet at driveelectric.gov/quick resources right there at the bottom of the slide. And then I also want to say that the White House Council on Native American Affairs Ed subcommittee has come together to share tribal specific EV resources on the Joint Office Technical Assistance and Resources page.

We'll talk more about those updates to the web page with USDA later in the presentation including tribal-specific funding, webinars, and other opportunities and resources. So, thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. Now I'm going to hand it off to Lily Ballengee to talk about planning and Funding Rural and Tribal Electric Mobility Infrastructure.

Lily Ballengee, U.S. Department of Transportation Office of the Secretary (OST): Great, thank you so much, Shelbi. Thank you for having me. Hi, everyone, my name is Lily Ballengee, good afternoon. And on behalf of the US Department of Transportation, I do want to thank you for joining us today. So, I'll be providing an overview of the electric vehicle infrastructure basics to assist you in preparing to integrate electric vehicles into your own communities. Next slide, please. And one more, but before I do that because I want to introduce you to the department's ROUTES Initiative. Next slide, please.

So, the ROUTES initiative stands for Rural Opportunities to Use Transportation, excuse me, for Economic Success. The ROUTES initiative is relatively new. We were codified as part of that Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. But we do really work to address disparities in rural transportation infrastructure by engaging rural communities, harmonizing DOT programs, and working with federal partners to support a whole of government approach to helping these rural communities and tribal communities thrive. Next slide, please.

So just as a kind of quick reference of some of the other activities we have to offer, our website does kind of serve as a one stop shop for rural transportation resources. Not EV-specific. I want to note that we have a lot of other things to offer. For example, as I mentioned, we do develop tool kits and online information sources that are dedicated to really helping rural applicants access grant funds.

These are all available on our website. A few highlights here include the rural eligibility map to determine where you fit along those many different definitions of rural. Some point of contact information for your communities, as well as an upcoming grant applicant toolkit that should be out this week.

So, I encourage you to subscribe to our monthly newsletter which will have a QR code at the very end of the slide to let you get there directly. But that helps you to get the up-to-date latest information. All the information I'm going to provide today does come from the rural EV infrastructure toolkit, which is more formally titled, charging forward a toolkit for planning and funding rural electric mobility infrastructure. Next slide, please.

So, department first published this toolkit, the rural EV toolkit is what I'm going to call it colloquially, in February of 2022 to serve as a comprehensive resource to really help rural stakeholders start the conversation of scoping, planning, and funding EV charging infrastructure. When we first released this toolkit, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was not out quite yet. So, we did immediately go back to work and working on another one.

So, we did just release a revised version in May of 2023 that does include greater focus on tribal communities as well as new content related to electric transit vehicles, micromobility, and accessible design. It also included more information on those new programs that Shelbi already referenced that were included as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Next slide, please.

So, I want to note that it is– this toolkit is relevant to any rural and tribal entity. Anyone can benefit from this toolkit. It really is a compendium of information that will be of use to anyone interested or engaged in EV infrastructure ranging from the state level to local communities, tribes, transportation providers, businesses, individuals, non-profit organizations. There's a little bit of information for everyone. It's kind of a choose your own adventure. Next slide, please.

So, the toolkit does highlight some of the many benefits that electric vehicles offer rural area residents and tribal communities. We like to hit on the highlights as well as some of the challenges in our next slides. But first, let's focus on potential benefits for individuals. So EVs do have higher energy efficiency, lower fuel costs, and lower maintenance costs than similar conventional vehicles.

Essentially, the more you drive, the more you save. Which is really great for rural residents who typically drive more or 10 more miles per day on average than people living in urban areas. Also, home charging for EVs can be very convenient. And since many rural vehicle owners do have off street parking. They can easily charge in their driveway or garage, and then are able to leave home with a full tank, if you will. [CHUCKLES]

So then public charging, of course, can also help be easy for EV owners these days allowing them to charge while parked and while spending time and hopefully some money in their community which helps to spur some economic development as well. Next, we have increased competition obviously within the EV market which has spurred a growing selection of vehicle styles such as pickup trucks and SUVs when back in 2010 there was really only one EV model on the market.

Now as of last year, I think that number had grown to about 129 different models and different uses. Also, EVs do offer increased resilience since they can offer bi-directional Chargers often, which can serve as a backup power source in place of diesel generators during extreme weather events.

Communities, of course, can also benefit from EV infrastructure. So public EV charging can spur economic activity as I referenced earlier in communities as both local and visiting electric vehicle drivers are inclined to spend some more time, some more money visiting their local businesses and community sites as they charge their EVs.

Also, EVs helped protect rural community public health by eliminating tailpipe emissions and substantially reducing brake dust pollution due to their regenerative braking opportunities. They also cut down on seasonal smog forming emissions that impact rural air quality and degrade those scenic views that we're so proud of.

And of course, EVs do create less greenhouse gas emissions especially when they are connected with renewable energy sources. So next slide, though, does cover some of those challenges that rural and tribal communities still face when it comes to electric vehicle infrastructure. So, despite these EVs having a lower long term total cost of ownership as we mentioned, they can have a higher initial purchase price than conventional vehicles. That's something we're aware of. This is something that can be a barrier to many buyers.

However, it's worth noting that federal and state electric vehicle incentives can often help with costs in some capacity. Also, there is a very clear need for an expanded fast charging network to enable long-distance travel across those large expansive rural and tribal areas. This is one reason why the NEVI program that Shelbi did referenced is so impactful in getting that state funding into these communities.

EV Chargers can also require costly upgraded electrical service or expansion of the grid to rural areas that are currently without access. So not to mention another kind of frustration here is that the exact processes and frames for reviewing and approving permit applications can really vary widely between local and tribal jurisdictions.

This can lead to confusion from one community to the next. Unfortunately, there's kind of no set plan yet based on zoning laws and requirements. And then lastly, since early EV deployments were focused on urban areas, there's just simply been less exposure to electric vehicles for rural and tribal communities.

And that's something that we're trying to address through conversations like this. We're able to communicate to communities, rural and tribal, to figure out how we can help you help yourselves. So, the toolkit does provide some guidance and discusses some emerging solutions to address these challenges. Next slide, please.

And in some cases, some of that guidance is through this partnership. Through partnership opportunities. Diverse partnerships are really helpful to support rural entities in planning, funding, and implementing EV infrastructure projects. So here we do list some of the key partnership opportunities ranging from state, multi-state, tribal governments, local and regional planning partners. Electric utilities are very important charging networks site hosts.

We also list the Clean Cities Coalitions. We always recommend coordinating with them, your local Clean Cities Coalition who has so much information and can be a great source of information for you. For the sake of time, though, I'm not going to go into too much detail here. But let's just note that it does take a village to really get things done.

So, communicating, coordinating with your local officials and utilities, can help to ease some of those challenges that I did mention earlier regarding electric grid and permitting and approvals. And if you're unable to ease them at the very least, it alerts you to some areas of risk at a point where you can hopefully work to mitigate or avoid them rather than finding out too late in the game that the grid needs to be completely overhauled, for example.

So, this crosswalk right here does provide a range of those possible roles for various partners in the implementation of EV infrastructure. For example, EV ownership as we see here may look very different based on your preferred approach on whether it's being taken care of by the utility, the charging network provider, property owner, or a tenant. Next slide, please.

So, I know it's pretty obvious to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. Planning is so important. Simple as that. The toolkit includes some guiding principles to really help you find your own path through the planning process. A couple high points here is that in general, there's no one size fits all approach for all tribes and all rural communities.

Each project is likely to be unique based on the location, the partners involved, and the funding source. Because of that, the process may not be linear. That's to say that different aspects of the planning approach may occur in a different order, at the same time. What you do might be different than what the community next to you does. So, it's important to plan ahead and also revisit and revise throughout the process.

The toolkit does include a great planning checklist that will help you through that planning process that we'll get to in a moment. A couple other high points here is just to coordinate early and often with your partners as well as your stakeholders to ensure that the ultimate goal here is making sure that EV infrastructure is useful to the community and its specific needs. And of course, building for flexibility as plans and technology changes. Next slide, please.

So, this slide does show that planning checklist which I noted is a great resource. It helps to navigate you through the planning process to include project development, scoping, utility planning, installation planning, and operational planning. Those lines here on the right just reinforce the idea that it is an often an iterative process. So don't worry if your path looks a little different than this one or as I referenced previously, your own neighbors, for example.

The next slide touches on a few other tools and resources that we do include in the tool kit. Just a few of them are shown here with the goal of helping you along your way. So those are all linked directly in the tool kit and can be incredibly useful as you're finding data and determining your own charging needs. Next slide, please.

So importantly, the toolkit includes a wide range of federal grant and loan programs that can support various EV activities. Those, of course, include the NEVI program, the charging and fueling Infrastructure discretionary grant program, the Clean School Bus program. But it's also important to note that this toolkit includes transportation-related programs from across the federal government not just the Department of Transportation.

So, we include here our partners and friends at the US Department of Agriculture, Energy, the EPA, the Small Business Administration, Department of Commerce, Labor, Housing, and urban Development, and even the Internal Revenue Service. So, it does encompass discretionary and formula grant programs, loan financing opportunities, and tax incentives. Next slide, please.

So, these programs, all 80 plus of them, are housed in a rural EV infrastructure funding table on our website to help you determine what works best for you and your community based on your need as well as your eligibility. So, I encourage you to go check that out as an opportunity to figure out and fine tune some of the information for your own community. Next slide, please.

So, while I have you, I do want to plug the urban EV toolkit, which does follow a similar structure to the rural toolkit that I've been discussing today but might be more relevant to some communities that are a little bit more urban or suburban even. For example, that have multi-unit dwellings or other urban characteristics. So that is available at the Joint Office website and could be a useful resource if the one that I'm talking about today isn't for any reason.

So, with that, I do want to just thank you for your time. And once again, encourage you to subscribe to our ROUTES newsletter for monthly updates. Here's our website, transportation.gov/rural. Also, our email, rural@dot.gov, and that QR code will take you right to the ROUTES newsletter so that you can subscribe to our monthly updates and get everything as soon as it comes out on the table. So, with that, it is my pleasure and privilege to introduce Tedd Buelow from the US Department of Agriculture who will be providing some information on the upcoming EV tribal companion to the rural EV toolkit. So, thank you so much.

Tedd Buelow, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA): Thank you, Lily. I want to start by thanking you and the DOT team for such a great job at first publishing the rural EV toolkit and then updating it. I also want to thank Shelbi and the Joint Office for hosting today's webinar and inviting us to participate, and all the good work you've done over the last year to improve the technical assistance resources and program information for tribes on your website. And then tell everyone a little bit about how we've positioned this tribal companion to the rural EV toolkit.

When we raised our hand to work on this and lead this effort through the White House council for Native American Affairs, we didn't know what the website from the Joint Office was going to look like. And our friends at DOT were still updating the rural EV toolkit. So, we pivoted a little bit to really trying to supercharge what the tribal TA web page looks like and offers from the Joint Office so that everyone doesn't have another resource to look but can focus in on the resources already available and add some value to that web source by crowdsourcing information from all the different staff and agencies that are participating in the subcommittee work. So, let's give you an idea of what that's going to look like. Next slide, please.

So really, what we're trying to do is make program information and resources that are most pertinent whether they be because of timing or because they're more specific to tribes and tribal communities. Make sure that information is flagged and highlighted for you once again sort of curating that information across a bunch of different federal agencies and the expertise and program knowledge that that subcommittee brings to the table. We want to include resources, project examples, all sorts of things that we think might help you focus in on what's working and could potentially work in your tribes and tribal communities. Next slide, please.

So, we started off by thinking of this in four specific buckets. We wanted to once again bring timely funding opportunities to your attention as well as flag those programs that are most relevant to tribes and tribal communities. Tribal utilities as well so that recognizing that all sorts of exhaustive information are available both on the Joint Offices web page. And in the rural EV toolkit. But knowing that exhaustive information can sometimes be overwhelming.

So, we're going to do our best as we continue to update the resource to flag programs and resources that we think will help you the most. And once again, rather than letting you make your way through the desert on your own we want to act as a pathfinder for you to help you find those resources in a timely fashion.

Got funding opportunities, technical assistance resources across the participating agencies, so folks you can reach out to help answer your specific questions. We want to highlight some projects and partnership examples from across Indian country and Alaska. And have a library of informational webinars and short videos that you'll be able to find easily rather than having to search across all the different participating agencies’ resources. Next slide.

This is just a glimpse of what we're thinking. We'll have a list of types of programs. Our concept is to highlight any 6 to 10 specific programs in any given month period that we think will be most useful for you. Once again, that list wasn’t meant to be exhaustive. It's just meant to help you narrow in on programs that you can see might have a deadline that's coming up. And once again, are more specifically when it comes to eligibility of applicants and project types might be most useful and pertinent to tribes and tribal applicants. Next slide.

A technical assistance resources. There’re a few tribal-specific staff at federal agencies that we think are particularly useful for you to get to know and to utilize as often as you can. I think one of the things behind the scenes with the White House Council for Native American Affairs we're all educating ourselves better at resources that might be available. We're getting to know each other better. I did not know Lilly or Shelbi, for example, prior to this work.

So, we want to also grease the skids as it were for helping you to get in contact with the right folks. But we want to flag the Joint Office and the TA that they can provide our friends at HHS. They have some applicant training and technical assistance page just on how to apply for specific programs if you're kind of in that stage at the very beginning.

Our colleagues at DOE hopefully many of you know but if you don't, we want to steer you to their office of Indian Energy Policy and Programs. And the technical assistance you can request and receive through that office. DOT has a robust technical assistance way that you can request the TA and information and receive that technical assistance as do our colleagues at Affairs through their division of Energy and Mineral Development.

So, we want to have those resources out there. And once again, not thinking that this is the only place that you can go for TA. But to give you a step in the right direction, we want to bring those to your attention through this resource. Another really valuable thing we want to try to provide is examples from across tribes and tribal organizations that might pique your interest and might inspire you to what might work best in your own communities, in your tribal communities.

So, you can see a few that we've flagged just for today's webinar. And we want to keep building those examples. So, one thing I think the subcommittee and we'd like you to take away from today's webinar is that, once published, this isn't going to be a one-and-done thing. The more robust we can make this with your help, we're asking for feedback on what you'd like to see. And if you have examples from back home that you'd like to share, we'd love to highlight things that are working in your communities as well. You'll see the first one is an example of the upper Midwest inter-tribal EV charging network.

It turns out just by chance that last week the Joint Office highlighted this project in a webinar that they were hosting. So, if you didn't see that and you want to learn more about that project, you can go to the Joint offices page and watch the recording of that event to hear more about it. But we also wanted to highlight what the Cherokee's doing with the solar canopy and making available EVs through that solar energy source.

Clean energy buses, 28 school districts serving tribes have benefited from that funding. So, we've got a little synopsis of that particular step in the right direction. As well as two others that you can see, San Pasqual band of Mission Indians as well as Red Lake. So, if you're interested in those, know that those are going to be hosted along with some others that we want to flag for folks' attention once again to inspire you back home on what our tribes are moving this conversation forward back home. Next slide.

The last thing is sort of this library of webinars and short videos. So once again, rather than having you having to weed through different departments resources and where they might be posting videos, we wanted to give you a one stop of some videos and webinar recordings that you can go find and learn more.

There's also going to be a curated upcoming events page where anything that's tribal specific that we want to include on the calendar for your attention. We'd like to list them there. So once again, it's a call for anything back home that you'd like included in that calendar. And the Joint Office has a place where you can go to their contact page, put in a contract request through their contact form.

We ask that you select tribal nations technical assistance just so that it gets flat gets flagged. And then Shelbi in the Joint Office team can bring those requests back to the subcommittee whether it be for this actual resource or if you have a specific project or program question just know that that's part of this resource as well.

And we want to drive questions there because then you'll once again sort of get the value add of a group of federal agencies across different federal programs with different expertise that can help address your specific concern. And once again, we can continue to make this resource more robust as we move through the launch. So next slide. Think that's all I have. So, I'll turn it back to Shelbi to close this out, and then we can take some questions. Thank you.

Question and Answer

Bridget Gilmore, Joint Office of Energy and Transportation: Great. Thank you all so much for providing all of that really great information. So, it looks like we've gotten just a few questions so far. But if folks do have any additional ones, feel free to send them. There are a few that are looking at if we have any sort of resources on recommended EV vendors. Or I guess getting a better sense of the industry as a whole. But it's a good question. I don't know, do you all happen to know if there's a good resource out there for understanding the realm of possibility of folks could work with?

Shelbi Small: I don't believe that the Joint Office has a list of recommended EV vendors that we send out. But if you wanted to contact me or go through the contact form and ask for this, I definitely will bring this up with other Joint Office folks and see if we can put something together for you.

Bridget Gilmore: Yeah, definitely feel free to follow up on that one. Yeah, maybe some things in the works that might be helpful. I know we also received some questions in registration. One of those questions was how can tribal Institutions of Higher Education Engagement, IHEEs, engage with tribal nations from a research infrastructure and workforce perspective? If anyone wants to take a stab at that one.

Tedd Buelow: I can start, and then we'll have the other folks in. I want to correct something that I didn't do. I forgot to introduce Gentri White again. Gentri’s been working a lot behind the scenes and helping us develop these resources. So, my apologies for not doing that during the presentation. But thanks for all your work on this for the committee, Gentri It's been great.

As far as IHEEs, I mean, there's lots of different ways IHEEs can get involved. We talked a little bit about workforce development, we talked about relationships with, well, between tribal colleges and other land grant institutions that might bring research faculty and students that could help with projects and some of the planning work that needs to be done. At USDA we do have a tribal college and University program. So, if that's of use to leverage any way we're happy to leverage that here at USDA as well. But Lily or Shelbi, is there anything else you want to add to that?

Lily Ballengee: I just would say ditto to what Tedd said– opportunities in that planning process as it relates to anything that we could share the burden with your local universities, colleges, as it relates to environmental review, feasibility studies, mapping, anything GIS-related. A lot of these discretionary grant programs, formula grant programs typically require some level of analysis and data just to justify that your program is necessary, and valued, and needed, and there's that benefit cost analysis that everyone hates. So, any of those aspects that you can help to leverage in academia, that sounds fantastic. A great partnership, hopefully.

Bridget Gilmore: Great, thanks so much for that. Another question that we received is if any technical assistance resources will include information on how to stack grants with EV charging station tax credits. And if IRS is a part of this effort to educate tribes on how these tax credits might work. So, I know it's a tricky one.

Tedd Buelow: So, thanks, Bridget, I'll start. Yes, and I think we could use your help there. So, when we're talking about discrete projects. I think another way the interagency committees can be used is sort of bringing those entities to the table at the same time in the same moment.

We've talked about this before but with the evolving implementation of different programs, it's been hard to give clear guidance on how to stack grants. But if we can bring the different entities to the table at the same time, I think that helps. That helps tribes in any type of applicant because you hear the latest information from the respective programs at the same time.

IRS isn't directly involved. The Department of Treasury is involved in the parent committee which if I get right is economic development infrastructure and energy, and this is the energy subcommittee which has a subcommittee which is the EV working group that we're talking about today. So, I do think it's a good idea to try to figure out how we can get IRS involved in future discussions as well. So, thank you for that advice. Anyone else want to add?

Lily Ballengee: Not directly specific to tax credits, but I'm going to drop in the chat a link to the DOG Navigator. Is a great resource for people looking for assistance, technical assistance as it relates to discretionary grant programs in general across the DOT. Not EV specific, but a lot of the information as I mentioned will be useful.

So, the DOT Navigator I'll drop that chat. But also, they have a page that's kind of on understanding the non-federal match requirements at DOT just discusses some braiding opportunities, some opportunities for tribes. So, I'll be dropping that in the chat once I figure out how to use the chat appropriately. Thank you. [LAUGHS]

Bridget Gilmore: Great. Thanks for that information. Another question is if there are any resources on EV workforce development training for EV charging installation.

Shelbi Small: Yeah, so I can start on this one. I know this is something that the Joint Office is working very diligently on. Is getting some resources out for the states as well as for their community’s technical assistance program that we're going to have. So, I'm going to say more to come on that. So exciting stuff on the way.

Tedd Buelow: I would just add– this is a little bit humorous to me. I don't know if you will find it humorous. But rural development USDA doesn't have any EV specific programs, but we're involved because we do have energy and renewable energy and workforce development programs. I think that's another benefit of this type of work. Is we've got Department of Labor involved, and they can really lean into anything workforce development.

Tribal colleges, again, we referenced earlier, but they're developing workforces that are tribal-centric and tribal facing every day. So, getting them involved in that rural development we have programs that can help support tribal colleges as well as tribal led workforce development programs through our rural business program.

So, I think that's another benefit of these cross-agency projects and work in that it might not be EV-specific, but if there's a way you can leverage our business and job creation programs and workforce development programs for your EV projects, that's icing on the cake. So please reach out to us either at USDA or any of the participating agencies. Or once again, use that contact form that the Joint Office has and just flag it for that, and you'll get 10 agencies for the price of one contact. Pretty good deal.

Bridget Gilmore: Great. Thank you so much. I see that we're running a little bit short on time. So, I might just transition us to see what is coming next and be sure that everyone has the correct contact information as well. But yeah, so we will be having another webinar in two weeks that will be more focused on riding electric and thinking about multimodal transportation which I know there's a lot of really great information in the urban EV toolkit that Lily mentioned.

This is also going to be a great opportunity to learn a little bit more about the Clean School Bus program and the Low-No program that Shelbi mentioned. So, if you're interested in attending that one as well, that will be in just two weeks on the 5th. Registration should open soon, and then this is the Contact Us form.

Again, so this is where you can get in contact with that tribal nation’s inquiry type, and do please feel free to subscribe to our news and updates as well at the Joint Office. That's where you can find when the website goes live when there's new web content coming out on all these really great case studies that Tedd had mentioned. So just want to say thank you all so much for spending some time with us today. Thank you so much to our great panelists, and please do reach out with additional questions if we didn't get to what you were wondering about today. But thank you.