The Biden administration has recently been criticized for its slow progress in developing electric vehicle charging stations despite billions of taxpayer-funded investments. During a recent interview with CBS\u2019 Face the Nation, host Margaret Brennan pressed Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg as to why only a handful of stations have been built despite several years passing since the legislation was originally signed.<\/p>\n
In 2021, President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which provided $7.5 billion for EV charging programs.\u00a0 Furthermore, Biden\u2019s 2022 Inflation Reduction Act expanded tax credits for EVs and charger installations.<\/p>\n
However, the administration has reportedly developed \u201cseven or eight\u201d charging stations since the bill passed, begging the question of what the federal government has been doing with the billions in taxpayer funds and how it will meet the ambitious goal by the end of the decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cBack in 2020, the Federal Highway Administration says only seven or eight charging stations have been produced with the seven-and-a-half billion investment that taxpayers made back in 2021. Why isn\u2019t that happening more quickly?\u201d Brennan asked Buttigieg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe transportation secretary defended the Biden administration, explaining that it takes time to construct the stations while maintaining that the government is actively working with all 50 states to implement the charging stations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe President\u2019s goal is to have half a million chargers up by the end of this decade. Now in order to do a charger. It\u2019s more than just plugging a small device into the ground. There\u2019s utility work and this is also really a new category of federal investment. But we\u2019ve been working with each of the 50 States every one of them is getting formula dollars to do this work, engaging them and the first handful,\u201d he responded, before being cut off by Brennan.\u00a0 \u201cSeven or eight, though?\u201d the host chuckled.<\/p>\n
Buttiegieg doubled down, \u201cAgain by 2030, 500,000 chargers, and the very first handful of chargers are now already being physically built.\u201d\u00a0 A clip of the conversation has gone viral on social media, drawing commentary from conservatives questioning the Biden administration\u2019s competency.<\/p>\n
\u201cMargaret Brennan laughed in Pete Buttigeg\u2019s face when he said that 500,000 charging stations will be built in the next 5 years, while only 7 have been built thus far under Biden, despite billions in investment,\u201d Johnny Maga\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>\n