Biden Admin Fumes As CBS Host Says Trump is ‘Not Wrong’ About EVs | Opinion

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was confronted by CBS host over the Biden administration’s strong push for electric vehicles.

Former President Donald Trump said, “You notice he’s trying to save the electric vehicle but not the gas powered which is the vehicle everybody wants. They’re going crazy with the electric car, costing us a fortune. We’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing a car nobody wants and nobody is ever going to buy.”

“He’s not wrong on the purchasing,” CBS anchor Margaret Brennen told Buttigieg. “He’s wrong,” Buttigieg reacted.

“He’s not,” Brennen shot back. “Of the 4 million vehicles purchased, 269,000 electric vehicles were sold in the U.S. Market. It’s up like 2%.”

A recent Gallup poll in April revealed a decline in American interest in buying electric vehicles, with only 9% seriously considering a purchase.

Despite this trend, the Biden administration implemented stricter emission regulations to reach the target of 50% of U.S. car sales being electric vehicles by 2030.

“Every single year more Americans buy EVs than the year before,” he insisted. Brennen challenged Buttigieg on the insufficient advancements in establishing EV charging stations nationwide.

“The Federal Highway Administration says only seven or eight charging stations have been produced with a $7.5 billion investment that taxpayers made back in 2021. Why isn’t that happening more quickly?” Brennen asked.

“So the president’s goal is to have half a million chargers up by the end of this decade. Now, in order to do a charger, it’s more than plugging a small device into the ground. There’s utility work, and this is also really a new category of federal investment. But we’ve been working with each of the 50 states, every one of them is getting formula dollars to do this work,” Buttigieg answered.

“Seven or eight though?” Brennen asked. “Again, by 2030, 500,000 chargers,” Buttigieg said. “The very first handful of chargers are now already being physically built. Again, that’s the absolute very, very beginning stages of the construction to come.”

Buttigieg continued, “The reason that we’re investing federal dollars is to fill in some of the gaps in areas where it is not yet profitable for the private sector to do it. Again, the majority of charging will happen at home.”