“Americans love options. They love freedom and options. And I think at the end of the day, we need to give them better options. Whether it’s better types of vehicles, options to go from state to state, from city to city, from rural to urban, or from neighborhood to neighborhood. And that’s really what this administration is trying to do.” – Gabe Klein
With nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from the transportation sector, decarbonizing the system is an essential step on the road to a zero-emission future. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 significantly bolstered the federal government’s efforts to mitigate climate change—former establishing a new joint office between the Department of Transpiration and the Department of Energy to work toward that end.
Listen in as Ten Across founder Duke Reiter discusses these efforts with executive director of the new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation, Gabe Klein and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation at the Department of Energy, Michael Berube.
Additional Notable Quotes:
“It’s about looking at everybody holistically. And I think when you design the system for the most disadvantaged, everybody benefits.” – Gabe Klein
“We’re going to need to produce a lot more clean electricity—but that will happen. We’ve got to be smart about a system level design.” – Michael Berube
Guest Speakers
Gabe Klein is the executive director of the new Joint Office of Energy and Transportation. Previously, he served as the Department of Transportation commissioner in Chicago and director in Washington, D.C. He honed his creativity and leadership skills working in business, as vice president at Zipcar and national director of stores at Bikes USA. He also co-founded CityFi, a consulting firm to help city leaders, chief executive officers, and others understand the complexities of 21st century challenges, facilitate people-centric solutions, and use new models and technology-based tools to deliver optimized results. Clients ranged from foreign governments to cities, states, start-ups, and publicly traded companies.
Michael Berube is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Sustainable Transportation in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. In this role, he oversees EERE’s Sustainable Transportation sector, which includes the Vehicle, Hydrogen and Fuel Cell, and Bioenergy Technologies offices. Previously, he led the Vehicle Technologies Office. He brings more than 25 years of experience in the automotive industry, specifically in the areas of environmental compliance, energy and safety policy, product development and marketing within the Chrysler Corporation.
