The Biden administration‘s first electric vehicle charger, paid for by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, opened in Ohio on Friday, two years after billions of dollars in funding was allocated to ease a transition to electric vehicles from gas-powered cars. But that transition appears to be stuck in the slow lane.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law gave $7.5 billion to fund an electric vehicle charging network nationwide, but the implementation has been slow. The legislation pushes for 500,000 chargers to be created by 2030. Emissions standards for 2027-32 proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency seek to have 50% of all new vehicles sold for 2030 be electric vehicles.
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However, the bureaucracy the charging stations must go through before being built has slowed the efforts, even as the White House touts the opening of the first charging station.
The United States has roughly 180,000 public and private EV chargers nationwide, according to the Department of Energy. The slow rollout of the chargers, which are critical to making EVs work across the country, comes as the GOP looks to slow the EV transition by the Biden administration.
With the abundance of gas stations nationwide, gas-powered cars will remain easier for consumers to use until the number of electric vehicle charging stations catches up.
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The House of Representatives passed a bill last week with bipartisan support to block the EPA’s proposed emissions standards, which Republicans and critics argue would take away consumer choice.
The White House has vowed to veto the bill if it passes in the Senate, while an internal House Democratic memo accused the effort of being harmful to the point of causing excess deaths from the increased pollution that would result from the standards being blocked.
