The State of California, which is suffering from massive budget deficits, will spend $1.4 billion to expand a network of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations to assist drivers of the cars that Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to require by 2035.
As Breitbart News noted earlier this week, Newsom’s EV mandate is in trouble, with sales falling far below targets. In addition, as the Los Angeles Times reported, Newsom is raising eyebrows by continuing to propose new spending — even though the state is suffering under massive budget deficits, despite lavish coronavirus relief from the federal government under President Joe Biden’s inflationary American Rescue Plan, which he signed on taking office in 2021.
But the state is determined to push the EV mandate, as the Washington Post reported on Thursday:
The California Energy Commission, the state agency that oversees energy policy, approved a $1.4 billion plan Wednesday that regulators said would result in nearly 17,000 new chargers for passenger vehicles statewide, adding to the more than 152,000 public and private chargers available today. The money will be spent over the next four years. In a news release, state regulators said least 50 percent of the funds would go to parts of the state that bear a disproportionate share of pollution, such as communities near major highways, oil refineries and landfills.
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The move comes at a time when Donald Trump’s return to the White House is fueling uncertainty about the future of America’s shift to electric vehicles.
Throughout the presidential campaign, Trump frequently attacked the Biden administration’s climate policies and support for decarbonizing transportation by shifting to EVs. His transition team is looking at rolling back President Joe Biden’s stricter vehicle fuel efficiency standards and eliminating the tax credits for EV buyers in Biden’s signature climate law. Without these credits, which can be as high as $7,500 for new electric cars and up to $4,000 for used models, EVs sales could fall.
Newsom promised last month to bring back California’s tax rebates for EVs if President-elect Trump cancels the federal tax credits for such vehicles, but the governor would need legislative approval — and there is little money.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
