Positive Political Progress # 2
Debunking the “But there’s no EV chargers being built so Biden was lying!” talking point.
It always amazes me how humans think you can complete massive billion dollar projects in two years. Dems particularly are horrible with this because they rally to support their Presidential Candidate (sometimes) but if ALL the promises aren’t immediately fulfilled by midterms they spend that whole election cycle complaining about how the candidate failed, where if they had just bothered to keep tabs on what was going on they would know that often the promises had been fulfilled but it TAKES TIME to see results.
Case in point: EV Chargers and building out the network. On whitehouse.gov there is an extensive blog post about all the work going into building out the EV charger corridor : https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/blog/2023/12/11/full-charge-the-economics-of-building-a-national-ev-charging-network/
First off…it’s not cheap to create an entire transportation support infrastructure to replace gas powered cars…
To this end, the President has invested $7.5 billion from his Bipartisan Infrastructure Law towards building a national network of EV chargers.
And even with all that money, do we have the people and the tech to create, maintain and implement it? Right now? What about making sure every electric car on the road will be able to use all these chargers? Do we have that yet? No. But, Biden has a plan for that too. And you know how we’re trying to get away from outsourcing? Yeah, he already thought of that.
To tackle this problem, the Biden-Harris Administration established minimum standards for all EV chargers funded through certain federal programs, which also make sure that these standards embody the best technologies. These minimum standards for the NEVI and CFI programs require fast charging stations to support the widely-used Combined Charging System, while providing flexibility for chargers to support the Tesla-developed North American Charging Standard, which is rapidly increasing in popularity. The Administration’s minimum charging standards also require charging pricing to be transparent and for chargers be available and working when people need them.
To help ensure that chargers are reliable while creating good jobs for American workers, electricians who install and maintain chargers must be certified through the Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program. Through the Administration’s Infrastructure Talent Pipeline Challenge, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers has already trained about 20,000 individuals to install EV chargers across the country.
However, all the money and people won’t get much done unless the states figure out the best way to allot the resources for the project. Which is why each state has put forward plans to accomplish the corridor….
Which you can see here…
The Federal Highway Administration approved the state plans for electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure deployment linked in the table below. This page also shows state funding for fiscal year (FY) 2022, FY 2023, and FY 2024 from the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program, as well as how many miles of EV charging corridors are designated as ready or pending in each state through Round 7 of the Alternative Fuel Corridors program. For 5-year total funding, see estimated NEVI funding by state.
But not only do you need people and money, you need the chargers. And Biden is on that too.
Just three years ago, there was almost no U.S.-based production of fast chargers; now there are at least 26 firms manufacturing these products within the United States. Since President Biden took office, at least 40 U.S. based facilities to produce EV chargers have been announced or opened. As of September 2023, these facilities now have the capacity to produce more than a million charging stations each year — including 60,000 fast chargers.
So for people wondering where these chargers are? THEY’RE IN PRODUCTION IN US BASED FACILITIES which provides jobs for Americans, invests in our own manufacturing resiliency, helps us fight climate change and improves the economy.
And yet…what I see over and over is “Dems have abandoned progressive ideals, they haven’t helped the middle class, they aren’t addressing climate change and they are‘moving right’. And yet…they are tackling all of that in multiple ways…
So why are we NOT TALKING about it?
