Biden pushes electric vehicle chargers as energy costs spike

President of the United States Joe Biden is highlighting billions of dollars in his giant bipartisan infrastructure deal to pay for the installation of electric vehicle chargers across the country, an investment he says will go a long way to curbing planet-warming carbon emissions while creating good-paying jobs.

The new infrastructure law for electric vehicle chargers is intended to get America “off the sidelines” on green-energy manufacturing. Currently, the US market share for plug-in electric vehicle sales is one-third the size of the Chinese EV market.

“It’s a big deal,” Biden declared as he signed the bill into law at a White House ceremony on Monday.

Two top White House advisers, writing in the Detroit Free Press, said the legislation will help America regain its global competitiveness, which has waned, they contend, “after decades of delay and decay”.

“Nobody knows this better than Detroit, which has been at the heart of American industrial strategy in the past and now can again, which is why President Biden is coming today,” wrote Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and national security adviser Jake Sullivan in an opinion column published on Wednesday.

Republicans, even some of those who voted in favour of the infrastructure package, are criticising Biden for being preoccupied with electric vehicle technology at a time when Americans are contending with a spike in gasolene and natural gas prices.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki has stressed that the administration is looking at “every tool in our arsenal” to combat high gasolene prices.

Biden has asked the Federal Trade Commission to monitor gasolene prices and address any illegal conduct being observed and is engaging with countries and entities abroad like OPEC on increasing supply.

He went a step further on Wednesday, sending a letter asking the FTC chair to consider investigating “whether illegal conduct is costing families at the pump”. The letter noted an “unexplained” gap in the price of unfinished gasolene and prices for consumers at the pump.

Biden wanted US$15 billion to build 500,000 chargers and hasn’t given a number for how many could be constructed for half that amount.

It’s likely US$7.5 billion won’t be enough. The International Council on Clean Transportation says the US will need 2.4 million charging stations by 2030 if 36% of new vehicle sales are electric. Currently there are about 45,500 charging stations nationwide with about 112,000 plugs.

Biden is hoping to do even more to promote electric vehicles, including a provision for a US$7,500 tax credit for consumers who buy electric vehicles through 2026 that’s been floated as part of his proposed US$1.85 trillion social services and climate bill.

The following year, only purchases of electric vehicles made in the US would qualify for the credit. The base credit would go up by US$4,500 if the vehicle is made at a US plant that operates under a union-negotiated collective bargaining agreement. Only auto plants owned by General Motors, Ford Motor Company and Stellantis NV qualify.

The tax break favouring American-made vehicles could be a point of tension when Biden hosts Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the White House today, Thursday, for the first North American Leaders Summit since 2016.

Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said she raised concerns with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken when the two met in Washington last week that the proposed tax credit would have an adverse impact on North America’s integrated auto industry and put thousands of jobs in Canada at risk.

AP