Three Years after Allocating $5 Billion for EV Chargers, Government Has Completed Projects at 17 Stations

In its classic overwritten style, the Biden administration said in 2021, “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law makes the most transformative investment in electric vehicle charging in U.S. history that will put us on the path to a convenient and equitable network of 500,000 chargers and make EVs accessible to all Americas for both local and long-distance trips.” It was “the largest-ever U.S. investment in EV charging and will be a transformative down payment on the transition to a zero-emission future.”

Judge Glock of the Manhattan Institute writes more soberly. “Congress provided $5 billion over five years to fund a national network of EV charging ports,” he notes today in the Wall Street Journal. “Almost three years later, the program has created 69 ports, fewer than the rest of the EV sector produces every day.”

It’s not even as though there are 69 different places where people can charge EVs courtesy of the federal government. The government says those ports are located at only 17 stations. The government pats itself on the back by noting that the 69 ports are “more than twice as many” as last quarter.

“The Biden administration has turned infrastructure spending into a branch of social services, focusing on support for favored groups more than developing the infrastructure itself,” Glock writes.

That’s already the way government approaches spending on public transportation. As government encroachment on automobiles continues, expect it to resemble public transportation in more ways.

In addition to the spending in the infrastructure law, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act included a tax credit for EV chargers. To get the full credit, projects must abide by prevailing-wage standards or have project-labor agreements friendly to unions. “Soon, mandates will apply even to charging stations that don’t receive government funding,” Glock writes.

As of this month, Buy America requirements will now apply to EV-charger projects receiving federal funding. They had previously been partially exempt, but the Biden administration is now bragging about how it has the shortest Buy America exemption list in history, proudly proclaiming that it is spending your money poorly.

Government EV-charging efforts have also been targeted to “disadvantaged communities,” but those are the ones least in need of EV-charging stations. College graduates who make over $100,000 a year are the likeliest group of people to own an EV or be considering buying one, according to 2023 Gallup research, which makes perfect sense given their price. These people do not live in “disadvantaged communities.”

Contrary to common belief, most infrastructure is not publicly owned, and less of it should be. If $5 billion of taxpayer money directed to one of the current administration’s top policy priorities is getting results this paltry, that’s even more evidence that government involvement in infrastructure should be reduced.