Sen. GOP Leader Harding Reacts to Feds’ Taxpayer-Funded EV Charging Station Debacle

May 28, 2024

HARTFORD – Sen. Republican Leader Stephen Harding, the ranking member of the legislature’s Environment and Technology Committee, today issued the following statement regarding U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg’s May 26 interview on CBS’s “Face The Nation” where Buttigieg confirmed that President Biden’s plan to build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations around the country by 2030—a $7.5 billion investment that taxpayers made back in 2021—has only produced seven or eight federal EV charging stations so far.

“What we heard in this interview is eye-opening. It validates the reasonable questions that Connecticut Republicans asked in the past year when Democrats sought to eliminate consumer choice by enacting an electric vehicle mandate in our state. Connecticut Democrats wanted to take away consumer choice, yet they had no answers on how much the EV mandate would cost. They had no answers on how the electric grid could handle it, and where the increased electrical capacity would come from. It is why the Democrats’ mandate was labeled ‘A Ban with No Plan.’ It is why thousands of Connecticut consumers signed our petition at BanWithNoPlanCT.com.

“It is why Republicans noted how the EV mandate by 2035 would crush middle class budgets. It’s why Democrats temporarily pulled the plug on the mandate last fall. Connecticut ratepayers pay among the most expensive electricity bills in the entire country. Republicans support cleaner air efforts, but we have to do it prudently. We have to be smart about this in order to protect the middle-class families in Connecticut who are paying too much already. The multiple question marks and contradictions surrounding the mandate’s achievability, affordability, and budgetary impact continue to remain serious concerns,” he said.