WND By Will Kessler Daily Caller News Foundation 1/27/2024
'This is a central planning snarl-up'The Biden administration has designated billions of taxpayer dollars to build electric vehicle (EV) chargers, but lagging market demand and government red tape are getting in the way, according to experts who spoke with the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced Thursday that it was awarding $150 million to upgrade existing public EV chargers, just one week after announcing another $623 million in subsidies to states to bolster EV charger construction. The grants from the FHWA are part of two EV charger programs established by the Biden administration in the November 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure (CFI) Discretionary Grant Program, which were designated collectively $7.5 billion for charger construction and upgrades.
However, there have only two stations have been built due to NEVI as of December, according to the Department of Transportation, with experts telling the DCNF that lack of demand, regulations and union requirements are stalling construction.
Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF that federal regulations pertaining to the specific parameters of the installation sites must be met before the projects can be finished, adding on bureaucratic red tape. Additionally, the government’s insistence on dedicating resources to certain constituencies that would bolster the current administration’s election prospects has created limits on procuring those assets.
“This is a central planning snarl-up,” Lewis told the DCNF. “The subsidies exceed the scale of market demand. States complain of inflexible requirements regarding how far apart charging stations must be, how many charge ports must be built per station, and how many must be located in disadvantaged communities. In addition, central planning and politics are joined at the hip, so workforces must be certified by unions, and materials such as iron and steel must be sourced from American companies.”
More:
https://www.wnd.com/2024/01/bidens-multi-billion-dollar-ev-charging-program-short-circuited/
