Democrat slams 'pathetic' progress on government EV charger installations
Just seven charging stations have been built thus far using billions of dollars in federal funds authorized in 2021
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The Biden administration's efforts to install electric vehicle (EV) charging stations that received billions of dollars in funding from Congress have thus far yielded just seven functioning chargers, which Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., called "pathetic" progress on Wednesday.
The seven charging stations consist of a few dozen total charging ports and were funded under a 2021 federal law, said Shailen Bhatt, who heads the Federal Highway Administration, at a Senate Environment and Public Works committee hearing.
"That is pathetic. We're now three years into this… That is a vast administrative failure," said Merkley. "Something is terribly wrong, and it needs to be fixed."
Merkley also criticized existing federal highway rules for preventing the installation of EV charging stations at rest stops.
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The Biden administration's push to install EV chargers has yielded slow results so far. (Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald via / Getty Images)
Bhatt said he, too, is frustrated by the slow pace and acknowledged, "There are a number of problems." Among those, he noted that states are dealing with multiple programs as they look to tap into funding for EV charger installations.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper, D-Del., said he is considering holding a hearing on the slow deployment of EV charging stations.
"We want to make sure that the federal money that we have allocated is being used for the right purposes," Carper said.
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Car buyers have expressed apprehension at buying EVs because of the lack of public charging stations. ( / Getty Images)
The latest criticism of the EV charging station rollout comes after Republican lawmakers in February raised concerns about the EV program and said at the time that "little progress has been made."
The Biden administration has set a goal of increasing the size of the charging network to 500,000 ports, including high-speed chargers, that are located no more than 50 miles apart on the busiest highways in the country.
Bhatt said the U.S. had a total of about 183,000 public charging stations as of December and that the number of fast-charging ports available to the public has grown by 90% since the start of the Biden administration. He also expressed confidence the U.S. will reach the 500,000 charging port goal.
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Members of Congress have criticized the slow rollout of federally funded EV charging stations. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via / Getty Images)
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that 27 states have issued commercial requests to build charging stations and that she expects about 1,000 EV-charging stations in public places to be operational by the end of 2024.
"These are the hardest ones to do," Granholm said, adding that some areas slated for charging stations don't have electricity yet.
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A recent study by J.D. Power found that car shoppers are slightly less likely to consider purchasing an EV than they were a year ago, with the lack of charging station availability the leading reason, with 52% of respondents citing that as the reason they're less interested in EVs.
That figure is up 3 percentage points from a year ago, which J.D. Power suggested may be "a sign that concerns about public charging infrastructure are only getting worse."
Reuters contributed to this report.