A mural offers a backdrop for Polk County Rural Public Power District's Level 2 charger in Stromsburg, Neb. Electric co-ops lead the charge to bring EV infrastructure to the countryside RURAL AND READY N BY DALE BUSS AND CALLI TOWNSEND early a century ago, a federal program to electrify America's rural areas transformed their economies and brought them into the 20th century. Now, advocates of rural electric vehicle chargers say they will be crucial to bringing the nation's small heartland cities, small towns and farming communities fully into the 21st century. While the Biden administration's new infrastructure initiative and most electrification efforts focus on putting chargers in dense metro areas, rural citizens also are getting some attention. The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework supported by the president currently includes $7.5 billion to construct a national EV-charging network along highways and in rural and disadvantaged communities. Many rural chargers are being financed by state disbursements of funds from the $3 billion Volkswagen AG agreed to pay the U.S. in 2016 as a penalty for its diesel-emissions cheating scandal. In 18 shift * july 2021 Darren Johnson, facility service supervisor at Nebraska Public Power District's York Operations Center, uses a new EV charger station. addition, VW-created Electrify America has committed to $2 billion in infrastructure spending, including placing chargers in rural areas. The desire to proliferate EV chargers in the hinterlands stems from two interests. One is to keep rural states relevant and connected in the EV era by ensuring travelers can charge EVs even if they're just passing through.