MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A few years ago, Congress had an idea - a special office connecting two federal agencies that both work on electric vehicles. But this startup within the government has become a casualty - possibly an accidental casualty - of the push to shrink the government. NPR's Camila Domonoske reports on how that office has become a ghost ship.
CAMILA DOMONOSKE, BYLINE: When Congress passed the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021, it designated billions for electric vehicle chargers, especially along highways. The Department of Transportation handles all things highway. The Department of Energy knows about all things electricity. And those two?
PHIL JONES: They never really talked to each other. They certainly didn't plan together.
DOMONOSKE: That's Phil Jones, who has spent years advocating for EV policies. Congress wanted them to plan together, so this law invented something new, a Joint Office of Energy and Transportation.
GABE KLEIN: This was the first joint office that had ever been created at the federal level to span multiple agencies.
DOMONOSKE: That's Gabe Klein, the founding director. Klein left in February, and that wasn't a surprise. New administration, new leadership - but he thought the team would continue. After all, the work was mandated by Congress. There were once close to 50 people at the Joint Office, but the cuts this year to probationary staff hit hard. As a newer office, there were lots of recent hires. The government also invited people to resign but keep their pay through September. At first, a lot of people stuck around, but projects were in limbo. Across the government, people who work on climate-related topics had their work frozen, affecting contractors and staffers.
KLEIN: You are pretty much staring at a computer and not doing work. And for people that are motivated, that's very demotivating.
DOMONOSKE: There were return-to-office mandates, new fears of future layoffs and then, in April, a second invitation to resign. It hit different. After that, Klein says...
KLEIN: I'm not sure we'll have any full-time people left in the Joint Office.
DOMONOSKE: I talked with several people who've recently left the Joint Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they're worried about retaliation related to their severance or former projects. They said that to their knowledge, every full-time federal employee in the office is leaving. In most cases, their last day was last Friday.
The Joint Office still has a website, but it no longer lists any leaders or staff. And here's the twist. Despite all the actions this administration has aimed at EVs, people I spoke to don't think this was planned. There was no executive order aimed at them, and it wasn't like the new administration laid the whole team off. Here's Klein.
KLEIN: The Joint Office was not necessarily a target.
DOMONOSKE: Asked about the changes, the Department of Energy said in a statement it was, quote, "conducting a department-wide review" to ensure activities are legal and, quote, "align with the Trump administration's priorities." The Department of Transportation did not return requests for comment.
The people I've talked to say that some fellows and contractors will keep working on Joint Office projects but at one agency or the other, rather than living in this special space between the two. The Joint Office got people to talk to each other - two different federal agencies, yes, but also the Feds and the states, academics and industry, auto companies and charging companies. They worked out some technical details to make charging more reliable. So when you plug in any EV at any charger...
All right.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHARGER CLICKING)
DOMONOSKE: ...Especially if the car and charger are from two different companies...
(SOUNDBITE OF BEEP)
DOMONOSKE: ...There's a higher chance 15 seconds later, you'll be saying this...
Charging started.
...Instead of saying something we can't air on NPR. Nick Nigro runs Atlas Public Policy, a policy and data research firm. He says the Joint Office's role bridging divides was really valuable. Without the Joint Office, he says, that work will still happen in the private sector.
NICK NIGRO: It's just it might go slower, and it might be more cost-ineffective, which is sort of ironic, given the current goals of the administration.
DOMONOSKE: As EV infrastructure grows, energy and transportation experts have to work together somewhere. It just might not be in the home Congress made for them. Camila Domonoske, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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