By: Ross O’Keefe
Washington Examiner Exclusive: Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) introduced the “Free Market Drives Itself Act” last week to eliminate the Electric Vehicles Working Group, which makes EV recommendations to President Joe Biden’s administration, in an effort to reduce EV spending.
“Electric vehicles are not a practical choice for Americans, and the Biden Administration’s attempts to force ‘green transportation’ on them is appalling and wasteful,”Ogles told the Washington Examiner.
“There is approximately $7.5 billion in hard-earned taxpayer dollars being spent to build more charging stations,”Ogles added. “Remember, just 7% of Americans own an electric vehicle, and the vast majority of those owners are far wealthier than most Americans. When your average family is paying $1,200 more per month for their basic cost of living, it is unconscionable that Biden would spend more money to hire additional federal bureaucrats to build costly charging stations that only benefit a tiny fraction of the population.”
Ogles’s argument that EVs are owned by the wealthy has support. Electric vehicles cost about $10,000 more than gas-powered vehicles on average. Reps. Scott Perry (R-PA), Bob Good (R-VA), Cory Mills (R-FL), Matt Rosendale (R-MT), Randy Weber (R-TX), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) are co-sponsoring the bill.
“The Democratic Party loves to pretend that it is the ‘party of the people,’ but it is truly the party of the out-of-touch wealthy elites,” Ogles added. “The Joint Office of Energy and Transportation’s Electric Vehicle Working Group (EVWG) has got to go. We need to let the free market drive itself because Joe Biden’s policies are driving hardworking Americans straight off an economic cliff.”
The bill is another attempt from Republicans to cut government spending and highlight the Biden administration’s ineffective rollout of electric vehicle charging stations. A March report indicated there were only seven open charging stations out of 500,000 promised by 2030.
The bill has been referred to three House committees: Energy and Commerce, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Science, Space, and Technology.
###
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://ogles.house.gov/media/press-releases/ogles-introduces-bill-curb-ev-spending