Statement: “Pete Buttigieg will leave his post as Transportation Secretary having spent $7.5 BILLION to build 8 EV charging stations.”
As Joe Biden’s presidency ends, claims about his achievements are getting scrutinized. Now a viral claim about one of his landmark policies on electric vehicle charging says it has yielded only a handful of stations.
“Pete Buttigieg will leave his post as Transportation Secretary having spent $7.5 BILLION to build 8 EV charging stations,” U.S. Rep. Michael Rulli, R-Ohio, wrote Nov. 24 on X. “His legacy will be squandering billions on something nobody wants, while millions struggle to afford the things we need.”
Donald Trump Jr. shared Rulli’s X post and added, “Does not seem like a great return on investment.”
We saw a similar claim on Facebook. “Joe Biden’s administration invested $7.5 billion into EV charging stations, but somehow only built 7 or 8 stations in about 2 years, and now people want to know where all the money went,” a Nov. 29 Facebook post featuring a photo of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said.
The Facebook post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
This claim is inaccurate. More than eight charging stations have been built and several hundred are still under construction by state and local governments.
Rulli’s office did not respond to our request for comment.
Rulli
The $7.5 billion figure refers to funding for expanded electric vehicle charging from the 2021 bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The law gave $5 billion for EV charging under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and $2.5 billion under the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure grant program. The federal government distributes NEVI funds to transportation departments in all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia; a wide range of agencies, including municipal governments, tribal governments and universities, can access CFI funds.
A Federal Highway Administration spokesperson told PolitiFact the two programs have so far funded 37 charging stations. Like gas stations, EV charging stations can have multiple charging points.
AT the 37 federally funded stations built in 13 states, there are 226 charging ports, said Rachael Dussuau, the highway administration’s associate public affairs administrator. As of Dec. 3, Dussuau said there are projects underway for 24,800 federally funded charging ports.
She told PolitiFact in an email that the recent Facebook claim is “not true” and that states have not spent all of the $7.5 billion from the infrastructure law.
To get money from the 2021 law, states and agencies must submit plans to an office run jointly by the Energy and Transportation departments. The highway administration approves the plans; state and local jurisdictions oversee construction.
The federally funded EV charging program started slowly. Although the infrastructure law was passed in November 2021, the Energy Department said initial state plans were not approved until September 2022. Constructing an EV charging station also requires site selection, permitting, collaborating with utility companies and other actions.
The Facebook claim probably comes from a March report in The Washington Post that found the program’s slow rollout meant only seven charging stations had been completed. During his speech at the Republican National Convention, President-elect Donald Trump falsely claimed the Biden administration spent $9 billion on eight chargers.
Buttigieg responded to Trump Jr.’s post on X, saying, “In this program, the chargers are built by the states, not the federal government. And while it takes time to get a novel multi-billion dollar program going across 50 states, the states are on track.”
We rate the claim that “Pete Buttigieg will leave his post as Transportation Secretary having spent $7.5 BILLION to build 8 EV charging stations” False.
Our sources
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Email exchange with Rachael Dussuau, Federal Highway Administration, Dec. 3, 2024
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Biden law gave states $7 billion for EV charging; how has it been used?