Nestled inside the line is 32 fibers packing optical fiber switching that, Google says, will improve reliability and greater redundancy to prevent outages. The contract to lay the pipe was signed earlier this year, and Google is expecting it to come online at some point in 2022. 

If you’re unfamiliar, Rear Admiral Grace Hopper was an American computer scientist who worked on the Harvard Mark 1. After the war, Hopper worked on developing computers both for the Navy and the general public, and laid much of the groundwork for the programming language COBOL. She was posthumously  awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.

The bill includes $3 billion to support projects that lower highway-related carbon emissions, and states could be given greater flexibility if they meet emissions planning requirements. States can compete for $500 million in additional funding by making progress on reducing per capita emissions, and they can compete for $1 billion to build hydrogen, natural gas and EV fueling infrastructure along designated highway corridors. That last billion won’t necessarily go to EV charging exclusively, but states will likely find EV charging easier to install than hydrogen or natural gas fueling infrastructure.

The bill is proposed by John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W. Va.), and Ben Cardin (D-Md.). As Electrek points out, Barrasso has pushed back against EV programs in the past, but he may have signed on as part of a compromise, or figured a few billion is just a drop in the bucket. The legislation is only being introduced today, so it’s too soon to say what the final breakdown will be, but the fact that EV charging and emissions reductions appear in the initial design offers a glimmer of hope.