journal" continues. host: the annual auto show is back in washington, d.c. is an opportunity for automakers and lawmakers to discuss policy matters such as the future of electronic vehicles. joining us to discuss that topic is gabe klein, the executive director of the joint office of energy and transportation.

let's first talk about when you walk around the auto show, what do you see, and what does it tell you about the future of this industry? guest: thanks. it is great to be here. i've been watching the show for a long time. it is an honor to be on. it is great to come to the auto show because it is a different world that it was five years ago. the industry is shifting dramatically, moving towards electric vehicles, alt fuel vehicles. i say all fuel because there are vehicles moving towards hydrogen. for consumers is a golden time to buy new vehicles, to rent a new vehicle, to use electric bikes, basically everything is shifting. whether you live in a city or a supper or a rural area, there

are now options for you wish there were not a few years ago. host: what is the future of the electronic vehicle industry? what are your predictions? guest: we are iterating and moving fast in this space. the biden administration has stimulated significant change. once the market moves the market moves. whether it is the large automakers, the battery makers. they are seeing the future written on the wall and that is that the combustion engine, the fossil fuel burning of the last century is over. it is just a matter of how fast we make the shift, not whether we make the shift. that is a significant change from how the district felt even five years ago. -- how the industry felt even five years ago. companies like tesla or ford or

even gm are seeing success in this space. once you see that growth in a particular segment, very quickly everybody follows. host: what is your office and what role are you playing in this industry? guest: i am super excited to be the relatively new executive director of the joint office of energy and transportation. what is significant about this is it is the first time the federal government has started an office that spans multiple agencies. we harness the incredible resources, skills, intelligence of people within the department of transportation, the department of energy, and to some extent the white house. there are brilliant folks in the white house working on policy and we work with all of them every day. it is growing the decarbonization -- the decarbonization blueprint for transportation was just announced last week at the d.c.

convention center. that also expands to hud and epa. we work with epa on their school bus program. we work with fta on their transit program. our first focus is $5 billion for the national electric vehicle network that we are building, charging network. that is a highway based network some americans feel like they do not have to have range anxiety when they use an electric vehicle. then there is another $2.5 billion that will be discretionary grants for cities, indian reservations, towns, and states that want to build fillon charging infrastructure or infrastructure within cities. host: what is the goal of the charging stations?

what will the u.s. look like with this money? guest: there is sort of a macro and micro aspect to this. they picture, we are talking about reinventing the economy around renewable energy and electrification and alt fuels. that is huge. that is in all of government approach, and all of society approach. it takes wall street, it takes main street commented takes local, state, and federal governments. specifically what we are doing, we are focused on building equitable, easy to use, safe, reliable network, just as we have now for gasoline. if you want to travel within your city or across the country within a rural area you can find gases easily. we wanted to be just as easy to

electric charging. that means being able to do it at home. being able to do it in a multi unit building if you live in an apartment. being able to use it on the highway or arterial networks. we have to do it all and we have to do it quickly. that is the boulder president set of 500,000 electric vehicles -- -- that is the goal the president set of 500,000 chargers by 2030. we have a lot to do quickly but with the climate crisis the way it is we take the challenge very seriously and will execute on at. host: how many public charging ports are there currently in the united states? guest: it is changing monthly. there are over 160,000 right now. that includes level two charges which are slower charges people have at their homes or often in

parking garages. also chargers -- those can be 60 to 70 kilowatts, though could be up to 350 kilowatts and charger vehicle very efficiently. the goal we have set for the highway charging is four charging ports, 150 kilowatts, every 50 miles. that is the beginning of a network, we are ceding it, we think the private sector will also come in. there also federal and state funds to build that network in over the next 10 years. host: these stations will be able to accept all types of electronic vehicles? guest: yes. just so people understand, the standard in this country and in europe is what is called ccf. if you google ccs ev you can

see what a standard charging port looks like. that is the minimum standard for the u.s. charging network. there are various under standards -- there are various other standards. there is one used in japan. tesla has the -- with the minimum standards we are putting out, there is a rule in the next few weeks. it will be clear to the states and the cities for how this needs to rollout and how we will make sure we have not over a national standard but interoperability and the ability for anybody with an electric car to plug into the system. host: s&p global on ev chargers. taken intoccnt, to properly marecasted sales demand the united states will need to see the number of ev chargers quadruple between 2022 and 2025 and bro more than eightfold by

2030. the transition to a vehicle market dominated by electric vehicles will take years to develop, but it has begun" according to this analyst. " with the transition comes the need to evolve and today's charging infrastructure is insufficient to support a dramatic increase in the number of ev's in operation." why should americans buy an electronic vehicle? guest: the fact is that by 2030 we will hopefully have over 2 million charging points around the u.s.. we are seeding that. the use case is little bit different. when you buy an electric vehicle, and i have had a few, if you have the ability to charge at home, that is where 95% of your charging will be, versus going to the gas station. it is a different situation.

i haven't been to a gas station in five years. we have to balance the needs of home charging, public urban charging, suburban and rural charging, and highway based charging. however, with the president's commitment and the $7.5 billion we are seeding this with and over $70 billion in other programs and the private sector ramping up with over $200 billion worth of investments very recently in this space, we think it will happen quickly. we think we will hit the tipping point in the next few years. the other thing is when you private electric vehicle, whether that is a bike or scooter or a car or truck, you cannot imagine going back to a combustion vehicle. it is such a different experience. 60% lower operating and maintenance costs. it is a different world. we think the market will move,

once consumers get a taste of it. i met with the ceo yesterday and they are buying hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles right now, and then people are getting trial usage when they rent them. once they try it we do not think they will go back. host: we are talking with gabe klein, executive director of the joint office of energy and transportation, talking about electronic vehicles and we are live from the washington auto show. we want to have you join in this conversation. take your questions and comments about electric vehicles. democrats at (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, and independents, join us at (202) 748-8002. remember, you can text with your city and state at (202) 748-8032 / here is a viewer on twitter.

how long before american electricity prices start to skyrocket after americans are driving ev's. they will price gouge us, just like the oil does. guest: great question. on the supply side, there is a huge move towards renewable energy. we fit in the department of transportation and the department of energy. i am learning a tremendous amount about how we produce energy and what the forecasts are. we think that not only is energy eventually going to be much lower than it is now through solar and wind and so forth, but the vehicles themselves can become part of the grid, meaning right now it is very centralized system where we produce energy, we distributed to people's homes, to businesses. these vehicles and their

batteries can become storage facilities for energy, which means they can take energy in and actually put it back into people's homes. that means lower-cost for consumers over time. there is a transition period, but energy should not get more expensive, quite the opposite. burning fossil fuels is much more expensive than harnessing the sun or the wind. guest: another viewer -- host: another viewer. speak to the role of hybrids going forward and the pasta replacing a battery pack after seven or eight years of daily use. guest: yes. hybrids have played a very important role over the last 20 years. they have saved millions of gallons of fuel and they continue to play an important role.

one of our deputies at the joint office has a hybrid toyota rav4 and they have a very long trip they make up to the mountains on the weekends. for them, the hybrid is the way to go. as the charging network is being built out and there will be chargers in the mountains -- they just bought an ev last week because a charger went up. that is important to recognize. the lack of a national charging network is what is keeping most americans from buying an ev. as we go from early adopters to the mainstreaming of this technology, the charging network is key. what was the second part of the question. -- what was the second part of the question? host: let me find that will stop the battery pack. replacing it after seven or eight years. guest: the technology in

batteries is changing faster than i can keep up with, it is on a daily basis. there are entrepreneurs inventing batteries that need fewer raw materials, rare earth metals, and so on. there are also amazing companies that are recycling batteries. that is not only important for the environment, it is important from a cost standpoint. that is something i've always espoused, particularly in the private sector but also the public sector. we need to embrace change and focus on products, services, technologies that are good for people, that are profitable and good for the planet. that is what you see this administration during. it does not need to be a win lose. abandoning fossil fuels and moving to batteries and eb will be a huge business opportunity. recycling batteries will be a huge opportunity, and costs will

fall like they always do with technologies as they evolve. host: we are live from the washington convention center just a few blocks from where we are here on capitol hill, where the annual auto show is taking place. we are talking about electric vehicles this morning. let's hear from audrey in alabama, republican. caller: good morning. number one, full disclosure i drive a suburban. the expense i have been fuel is not a big deal. this past summer i experience my first over $400 electric bill, and then christmas eve tennessee valley authority did rolling blackouts on christmas eve in tennessee and alabama.

i live less than three miles from a nuclear plant, and we have a dam. we also frack in alabama. my question is how in the world is our power grid in the southeast going to handle electric vehicles? i thank you very much. he does have energy in his title so i would like an answer to that because tennessee valley authority is giving no answers. host: turn up your television so you can hear the answer. guest: thank you for the question. it is a very valid question. there is a macro and micro answer. we are dealing with the effects of climate change. that is one of the reasons we have rolling blackouts and some of the other issues we are facing. i imagine last summer that her

fuel costs at the pump were dramatically higher to fill that suburban. right now the department of energy has $13 billion they are dispersing and there is many more dollars in total, but specifically for grid upgrades. also i noted she said there is a nuclear plant, there is hydroelectric, there is fracking. in this transition period we will need those things to get where we need to go. we will not have a fully renewable energy system overnight. having said that we are moving there and we encourage all of the states and local governments to move there with us. we are talking about creating great jobs and having a more resilient system so you have redundancy with the nuclear and the hydro, and we are talking about long-term creating a more sustainable environment so we can bring down emissions so we

do not have rolling blackouts, we do not have massive storms, tornadoes, all the things. we have to get the climate back into balance and unfortunately it will not be easy. over the last 130 years with the fossil fuel emissions, it has created the situation it is in and now we are in a situation where we need to undo it very quickly. i would equate this to world war ii, works progress in the 1930's. we need to come together to make this happen and we need to do it quickly to ease this pain. host: how much does the average electronic vehicle cost? guest: there is some great news there. over the last few years you had car companies introducing high end vehicles, and a lot of that was to recoup costs in r&d or production. now you have vehicles like

secretary granholm noted the other day she has a $25,000 chevy volt. with a $7,500 tax credit you're talking about $17,500. you look at that and the significant reduction in operating and maintenance costs and it a game changer. while the average cost might be $60,000 right now because you have high end vehicles like teslas and lucids, though some of those companies have rolled out significant price reductions because they want to qualify for the $7,500 tax credit, you have to have the vehicle under $55,000 if it is not a seven seater. we are seen evolution constantly . the supply chain issues have impacted prices of new and used cars but they are coming down. there is a $4000 tax credit for used vehicles.

if she wants to get rid of her chevy suburban and get an electric suv, she can do that and she can buy a used vehicle. host: you mentioned the charging ports is one of the hurdles for consumers to buy an electronic vehicle. how long can you go before you need to charge and how long will it take to charge that vehicle? when you go to the gas pump you spend a couple minutes filling your tank and then you are off. guest: yes. i was talking to an ex-coworker from my old days in the car sharing space and we were talking about how electric vehicles in the early to thousands would go 50 to 70 miles. my vehicle goes 400 miles on a charge. i can drive almost to the beach and back from washington, d.c. without having to stop for a charge. that is a huge difference. if you're buying a lower cost

vehicle that has 200 to 250 miles on a charge or more expensive vehicle with 400, if you are commuting 10 to 20 or 30 miles a day, you might charge your car once a week you might charge it at your home. you can charge a car fully and does go to three hours with a level two chargers -- you can charge her car fully in two to three hours. a faster charge you can charge in 20 to 30 minutes. for a lot of those people on long trips, stopping at a rest stop will take 20 minutes anyway. i find if i'm going from d.c. to new york, i might stop twice for 15 minutes. people are doing that anyway if they have a fossil fuel powered vehicle. host: rome, georgia. kelly, a republican. caller: the lady right before me

stole every one of my questions. i guess that was most of my things. i think as republicans we do want a clean planet. we are looking more towards nuclear and everything because we do have the dams. mostly we see that most of this is being brought about because climate change and we think it is being pushed too quick. i think this is where the problem lies. the people that are really pushing the climate change, i think we believe it, we would just be on board with it -- it is kind of like a preacher. we want to see somebody walk the talk. if you're going to tell me how

important the climate is, i need you to sell off a couple of your homes and everything. my last point is, we all share the same global climate. shutting down that keystone pipeline, until we fully get there, we are still going to have to use fossil fuels. host: gabe klein? guest: great points. i had a republican mayor in my office yesterday, democratic mayors, republican mayors, particularly the folks closest to their citizens. they want the same thing. they want clean-air for the kids, they want a healthy environment, they want lower health care costs, which are tied to this, and they want jobs. they want an educated workforce that can do those jobs.

we hear this time and again. some of the problem is the news, some of the dogma about what it means to care about the climate come and if you are caring about the climate it means you are antibusiness. i am an entrepreneur. i've spent my life building businesses. i can tell you that there is no question this is the future of american business and american jobs, and also it is the key to giving our kids the air and the quality of life we may have had, that that caller may have had when she was young. i think we need to get the real message out. that is why i am on c-span. i love c-span. it is the straight facts. i get her point. we are going to be transitioning off of fossil fuels no matter

how fast we move. it is important we are part of the paris climate accords because we cannot do it on our own. we need every country to be on the same page, every large country, and that is why playing apart on the world stage as president biden is doing is crucial. we need her and everybody else to have some faith and buy into this transition. every american will benefit. host: gabe klein, thank you ray much for talking to our viewer>"

live. joining me today, i am very excited for this conversation with republican congresswoman nancy mace of south carolina. thank you for joining us. rep. mace: thank you for having me. >> to