Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is taking a lead in making the case for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package in rural America. Buttigieg says the American Jobs Plan, includes more funding for roads and bridges, electric vehicles and biofuels, and broadband access all of which are important for agriculture.
The plan also contains $17 billion for inland waterway construction and repair and Buttigieg says this is a major investment to help agriculture get their products to market.
Biofuels groups have been critical that the plan includes $174 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure but carved out few dollars for renewable fuels. However, the secretary says he expects greater investment around biofuels to get to their net-zero carbon goal by 2050.
Buttigieg says the push for electric vehicles is global and the U.S. needs to position itself as a leader in energy and manufacturing electric cars will be part of that. He says if the U.S. doesn’t lead in energy countries like China will.
