After Congress Allocated $7.5 Billion for Electric Vehicle Chargers, Exactly Zero Have Been Built
Turns out the green in “Green Energy” is money.
Politico has just published an absolutely fascinating update on funds the US Congress set aside for electric vehicle (EV) chargers, ultimately to support a program connected to “net zero” climate cult goals.
Congress at the urging of the Biden administration agreed in 2021 to spend $7.5 billion to build tens of thousands of electric vehicle chargers across the country, aiming to appease anxious drivers while tackling climate change.
Two years later, the program has yet to install a single charger.
States and the charger industry blame the delays mostly on the labyrinth of new contracting and performance requirements they have to navigate to receive federal funds. While federal officials have authorized more than $2 billion of the funds to be sent to states, fewer than half of states have even started to take bids from contractors to build the chargers — let alone begin construction.
There are several reasons this is important. Without a network of chargers, traveling significant distances becomes problematic, and Americans love road trips. Just ask our Secretary of Energy, who attempted to use an EV for her own road trip.
But between stops, Granholm’s entourage at times had to grapple with the limitations of the present. Like when her caravan of EVs — including a luxury Cadillac Lyriq, a hefty Ford F-150 and an affordable Bolt electric utility vehicle — was planning to fast-charge in Grovetown, a suburb of Augusta, Georgia.
Her advance team realized there weren’t going to be enough plugs to go around. One of the station’s four chargers was broken, and others were occupied. So an Energy Department staffer tried parking a nonelectric vehicle by one of those working chargers to reserve a spot for the approaching secretary of energy.
That did not go down well: a regular gas-powered car blocking the only free spot for a charger?
EVs won’t run when they run out of the energy stored in the batteries.
More recently, almost 4,000 car dealerships begged Biden for help, as they want him to use his pen and phone to undo the ridiculous EV mandates that have popped up across the nation…thanks to green energy pseudoscience and climate cultists. Part of the reason for the plea is that technology is not where it needs to be to support EVs entirely replacing fossil fuel vehicles.
People will be less inspired to shell out the mountain of money required to purchase EVs if they don’t trust they will have the ability to recharge their cars readily.
There are also hints that plopping down a network of chargers may be more complex than it looks. In the European Union, electric vehicle drivers hoping to top up their batteries at one of 1,600 Spanish charging stations might be disappointed, as nearly half are lying dormant because they have no power connection. This is a problem all across Europe.
Such gaps are evident across the European Union, where last week the European Commission announced plans to upgrade the bloc’s power grids. These are due to be implemented in 18 months and include addressing EV charging station power shortages.
But despite the declarations of its leaders, red tape preventing progress towards greener transport in the EU is on the rise, industry groups and energy companies told Reuters, with permitting one of the major roadblocks.
The ease of building an EV charging hub varies considerably country by country. One industry source said that in Germany a hub was held up for months over rules protecting a single tree, while another located on a busy highway had to wait 10 months for a noise evaluation before it gained approval.
And given that the Biden administration is taking actions to gut the energy sources that provide reliable energy (breaching dams, rejecting pipelines, not allowing the sale of oil leases), it may be increasingly difficult to connect to a grid that can charge all the cars and trucks that would be needed to replace the gas fueled vehicles per the climate cult mandates.
And as interesting as the Politico article is, perhaps the most crucial takeaway is in the subheader: “The sluggish rollout could undermine President Joe Biden’s reelection messaging promoting electric vehicles.”
Bidenomics is not selling. Biden’s COVID mandate has been a complete failure and a policy disaster. The less said about Biden’s military leadership, the better (I try to stay uplifting during the Christmas season).
The Democrats are trying to find “wins” to place under the Biden column. Clearly, they are struggling to find one. So far, the only thing green about the Green Energy program he touts is the money being squandered.
Another governmental boondoggle at the expense of U.S. taxpayers money. How many more do we have to put up with?
— Eric Pistey (@shawnpisteySC) December 5, 2023
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Comments
Follow the money. It hasn’t built any ‘infrastructure’ so where has it gone? Hint: Dim party cronies with kic
Kickbacks to Dim pols
The d/prog largely support this foolishness w/o the kickbacks, it’s the GOP members who have the beneficiary companies in their States and CD that we have to be wary of. Nothing new it is old hat for DC establishment; see Iowa Congressional delegation and ethanol production subsidies/mandates for use. That’s why Cruz coming out against the ethanol industry in Iowa during his ’16 primary campaign and then winning the State was so surprising. To my knowledge no other Presidential candidate has opposed ethanol and won Iowa caucus.
Oh, yes. I’m sure the Report are pure as driven snow. Always.
Republicans… EDIT BUTTON PLEASE…!
10% for the BIG GUY.
Let’s just cut to the main problem. No one is going to go full EV unless there is a mandate. Reelect these pukes and get ready for the mandates, good and hard.
To be fair, that is about what I expected from a Government program these days.
The entire “green energy” and EV scams are Solyndra times one thousand. And, beyond the obvious corruption and self-enrichment at taxpayers’ expense, the policies being promulgated are economically, strategically and socially destructive and profligate beyond belief.
Harris urges 100 percent compliance by imposing bizarre chassis shapes on all future autos, and mandating they be called eclectic vehicles.
Hahaha
How many gas stations did the government build between 1900-1920? Why is it a government responsibility to build charging stations?
No one in or out of the government was talking about banning horse and buggies in 1900-1920. The entire left half of the political spectrum – and the most gullible on the right – have been talking about banning internal combustion engine vehicles, and in some cases passing a ban to take effect later. That puts the pressure on to somehow make the replacement viable…
Of course, it would be much, much better to get government out of both determining what car you’ll buy and how you will refuel or recharge it – but until the Democrats give up the first part, they’re committed to either pretending to _make_ the second part work by government guns, or having the people discover that the real plan always was to take away personal transportation.
Let’s see. 10% of $7..5b for “the big guy” comes to….
Make a regulation that all EV chargers MUST be powered by green sources such as windmills and solar. I mean, if you are going green, then stop faking it.
The problem should solve itself faster that the dying charge on a Ford Lightning towing a bag of groceries.
Is there a shortage of portable diesel chargers?
to power the electric chargers?
Biden green new deal is trillion dollar fraud. Won’t lower temps by 1 degree.
Probably won’t lower temps even one-tenth of one degree. All of this “climate change” agitprop is self-defeating and delusional farce, standing alone, and, it becomes even more farcical when one ponders that the Chinese communist regime and India’s leadership are building coal-fired power plants with total abandon.
Remember learning this in history class?
“Congress, at the urging of the Taft administration, agreed in 1909 to spend $750,000 to build tens of thousands of gasoline dispensing machines across the country, pleasing J.D. Rockerfeller of Standard Oil, who claims citizens in automobiles will benefit economic growth.”
No, me neither…
Building gas stations was profitable and would be done by private enterprise as soon as the roads were fit to drive on. Not so for charging stations…
I’m sure there’s a perfectly logical explanation for this. 🙄
Meanwhile, Tesla is putting in charging stations at an amazing rate, which does not include those in individual homes and businesses. These are just superchargers.
https://insideevs.com/news/663391/tesla-supercharging-network-2023q1/
Not only that, Tesla has pledged to make its total technology, including charging station specs, freely available to other auto makers. Other auto makers can use Tesla chargers, if they so desire.
The whole supercharger-for-other-automakers looks like another Solyndra episode, to me.
“vehicle drivers hoping to top up their batteries at one of 1,600 Spanish charging stations might be disappointed, as nearly half are lying dormant because they have no power connection.”
Morons.
Simply top each one with a solar panel and a windmill.
Then sacrifice a cow to Gaia, and she will provide.
Turns out the green in “Green Energy” is money.
Is anyone honestly surprised by this?
The only thing “green” about any of these “climate change” rules, measures, and regulations is the money flowing from taxpayers into Swiss bank accounts.
The dollar amount is too high. But they got the number of charging stations about right.
Hey, if it weren’t for those chargers stations, I’d never find a place to park the Suburban.
Used to work in the engineering/infrastructure biz.
Lots of studies and they don’t come cheap.
Have to investigate and present environmental, sociological, equity, archeological affects of moving a pin.
The more the better.
The FBI has stated that they were unaware of Joe Biden’s deposit of $750 million into his Christmas Club account, but believe it was legitimate.