The Biden administration has spent tens of billions of dollars on green energy, yet last year the U.S. and the world used record amounts of fossil fuels.
That would seem to be prima facie evidence that this “great transition” to renewable energy has so far been an expensive policy belly flop.
The evidence is everywhere. Americans aren’t buying electric vehicles any more than they were before President Joe Biden was elected. Even with record federal subsidies, car companies are losing billions of dollars making EVs that people don’t want. Wind and solar still account for less than 10% of American energy, and across the country hundreds of communities are saying “not in my backyard” to ugly, spacious solar and wind farms. And of course, electric bills and gas prices at the pump are 30% to 50% higher, even though we were promised the green revolution would save us money.
A case in point is the scandalous mismanagement of green energy implementation. Consider the $7.5 billion federal program stuck inside the 2021 infrastructure bill – a law that Biden touts as one of his great achievements. That bill promised half a million EV charging stations installed all over the country.
Instead, there have been a grand total of – drum roll, please – “seven or eight installed.” To be fair, that was through last month. They might be up to nine now.
When Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was confronted recently on CBS’s “Face the Nation” about what happened with all the money, he hemmed and hawed and replied: “In order to do a charger, it’s more than just plunking a small device into the ground. There’s utility work, and this is also, really, a new category of federal investment.”
Uh huh! Sure. Installing an electric charger for a Tesla in your garage is very complicated business. It’s like trying to build the Taj Mahal (which may not have cost $7.5 billion).
Here’s another mystery. Why can’t Pete give us an exact count on the progress when the number is small enough to use his fingers? At this pace, they may get 500 built by 2030 – not the 500,000 promised.
Thank God our celebrated transportation secretary, renowned for riding his bike to his Washington office, wasn’t in charge of the Normandy landing.
Then there is the question of where the $7.5 billion of taxpayer money has actually gone. At the current production rate, the final program’s price could inflate to more than $1 trillion.
If Donald Trump were president, he’d have long ago summoned Mayor Pete to the Oval Office and greeted him with those two words that made him famous: “YOU’RE FIRED.”
Instead, many Democrats are quietly talking about throwing Biden off the ticket, and one of the frontrunners to take his place is none other than the highly accomplished Buttigieg.
But there are some serious lessons to be learned from this monumental screw up.
First, though Biden loves to chat up how much money the government is “investing,” where are the signs that any of these borrowed trillions of dollars have improved our lives? This EV charger scandal is just another reminder that the government generally doesn’t “invest” tax dollars – it mostly wastes them.
Second, competence matters. At the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, we released a study finding that more than 90% of Biden’s top economic and finance team has NO experience running a business. We have an energy secretary who knows nothing about energy and a transportation secretary who knows nothing about transportation. They are lawyers, academics, politicians or government employees.
They are not bad people. They just don’t know how to run anything – and it shows.
Finally, why do we need the government to build EV charging stations? One hundred years ago, the government didn’t build gas stations. They just magically sprouted up all over the roads that criss-cross America, because entrepreneurs responded to the demand. Two or three brothers would scrap together some cash, buy a small plot of land on I-66, build a service station with four to eight hoses connected to a tank, put up a tall sign posting the gas price, and drivers would pull in and fill ‘er up.
All this “infrastructure” without a single penny or instruction manual from Washington.
Can you imagine if Biden had been president in the 1920s and proclaimed the government would build 500,000 gas stations? They still wouldn’t be built, and we’d all be waiting in long lines.
Stephen Moore is a visiting fellow at the Heritage Foundation and a senior economic advisor to Donald Trump. His latest book is: “Govzilla: How the Relentless Growth of Government Is Devouring Our Economy.”
COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
I would look and see how many of the Biden crime family cartel members and or friends are making money from the so-called charging stations and everything else having to do with green power. Go back and look at the Obama Administration family friends made what $800,000,000 creating a website for ObamaCare that didn’t even work? Or look at the Democrats overall track record solyndra, billions of dollars federal subsidy paid out huge payouts to upper management and then filed bankruptcy. Democrat Party is corrupt to the core. All they know how to do is lie and cheat
This is another big-government rip-off of the American taxpayer.
Someone on NPR recently bragged that 2,000 will be built by the end of the year. Yeah, sure. What will people do while their cars are being charged? Have lunch at Biden’s Dine-in?
The fact that the federal government will take on the job of constructing these recharging stations hints at their intent to take over a critical utility. What if there’s a great demand for air conditioning in part of a grid; will biden prioritize these stations while local residents succumb to the heat? Joe’s ice cream shops are safe, though; no danger of losing power there!
Perhaps, the funding is going to get more votes by funding , and supporting illegals to vote ?
What happened to the funds? — Into the pockets of those whose allegiance lies with $$$$$ and greedy poli-ticks.
Nice article and excellent points!
Where are the charging stations? By the time Braindead Joe and his family and friends and the rest of the insiders finish stealing their share of the loot, there is nothing left to build anything.
Yeah Joe and you too Pete Buttgobble, where is the demand for 4 wheeled toasters anyway? The demand for EVs is so great that Ford and Chevy lost BILLIONS building the things that don’t work in cold temps, have limited as hell range even when the weather is ideal and that often just catch fire burning garages and entire homes with the things.
And, now since you sanctioned China because you are too gutless to try to simply compete with that nation………well, where ya gonna source the batteries and yep, where and how ya gonna get the materials for the sit and wait forever charging stations both of you lied about?
There was a time when I laughed at those that said “the end is nigh”……….not any longer.
We now have the situation where incompetent ignorant of simplest rules of business are in charge Because they are not held accountable and responsible for fiascos they create they do as they see fit Central planning is insanity but they have no clue What might work in California will not work in Maine This is same as putting kids in charge of family budget First item would be a trip to the amusement park charged to a credit card This is crazy On one hand we have senility on the other adolescence A disaster
Biden: Take a hard look at your time schedule for EV and chargers & ask yourself if this would ever be possible? What is point of this and your war on coal is also hampering USA electric production. Come on Man!!!!!!!!!!
We simply cannot wait much longer for our rightful President to take his spot at the helm! Once 45 is back, all this EV BS will be put to an end!
Maybe Joe can get Solyndra to make some?
Since 1950,and prior when there were many industries and farmers using chemicals in addition to people using gasoline to power their cars I think it’s a combination of dangerous chemicals as well as people driving cars prior to us knowing how bad pollution would become as time passes. We didn’t become this polluted over night, thus it’s gonna take time to learn what works and what doesn’t. BIDEN can’t FORCE PEOPLE to buy and drive electric vehicles if they can’t afford to or don’t want to.
People are buying used gas cars but not many used EV s so does that tell a story or not/ And Biden & Trump need to realize that we all do not make +$100 thousand per year and can not afford all of the toys they come up with.
My advice to the Biden Administration(or regime) let’s keep the current energy sources in place. The private sector has the brains and ingenuity to find what people want to buy. Allow the market to decide not the politicians who may not have ever had a real job outside of government. It’s just good old fashioned common sense!
Please…!!!! Don’t remind him. He will take those $$$$’s and spend it on foolishness. Send him with his EV car down to Texas, have him drive on IH-10 from El Paso to Beaumont, see how he gets that car from point A to point B. Or from Dallas to El Paso on IH-20, IH-10, see how he gets there. EV’s cost too much to purchase, parts are too expensive to replace, and the cars are plain ugly.
Another example of the government stealing from our grandchildren for a wasteful government program… And yet, they’ll still go on voting for these idiots…
One thing the supporters of “green” energy have been great at is leaving key cost components out of their published estimates for solar and wind installations. The most prominent cost that has consistently been left out and entirely misrepresented, is for power grid extensions to these installations. These can take over a decade to plan, and the legal, engineering and installation costs can be way higher than the power generating equipment purchase and installation.
So far, “Green” is not comparing well with refurbishing & restarting nuclear plants, as they are already on the grid. In addition, small modular reactors (SMR’s) are in design and will start being built within the next 3 years. They can be placed at old power plant sites that are already connected to power grid, and provide 100% capacity power between refueling outages (over a year duration).
The “Big Filthy” (Democrat Party) is so enamored with wind and solar because they don’t have as much regulatory oversight as nuclear. Much easier for local interests to get their palms greased for Plan Approvals with “renewables” than for much more financially transparent nuclear projects.
By the way, you think you and your neighbors are going to charge your high-end Teslas in under an hour without nuclear? Since each of your cars will need a transformer that can power 5 big houses to charge that rapidly, then, think again.
…and how much does it cost (in time ad money) to use the ones that ARE available?
Only IF Biden had been around in 1920 as an adult… he’d be gone now.
The Build Back Better meant “Build Back Biden’s Bank Account Better”.
Pete Buttsore is a good one to put in charge of Pride month. Kyle L. . P S Yes look around folks at 7m to 11 stores. Just how many charge do you see. ??? And Malls.
you Need to get to building something besides pine trees and meth labs lol
Just because your nomadic tribe of grislier homes doesn’t have one doesn’t mean they don’t exist Stephen lol