The Biden administration continues to take steps to increase the production of electric vehicles (EVs), gaining support from left-leaning leaders, but a new national survey shows American voters do not believe high gas prices should be solved by buying more EVs.
According to a recent national poll distributed by the Senate Opportunity Fund, a majority of American voters disagree with the idea that the best solution to high gas prices is urging all Americans to buy electric vehicles. The poll was conducted March 15-17 and surveyed 800 general election likely voters on a national scale. When asked, 55% of voters disagree with the idea of encouraging more EVs to solve gas prices, while 38% agreed and 8% had no opinion.
Despite this, the Biden administration continues to push strongly for EVs. According to The Hill, Biden signed an executive order in August of last year setting up goals that half of all new vehicles sold by 2030 would be zero-emissions and that 500,000 electric vehicle charges would be deployed in the same time frame.
“If we want to reduce Putin’s power … then we need to double-down on alternatives, not on the same old failed policies of the past,” U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) told The Hill, adding that with the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last November, “we have the historic opportunity to charge forward on EVs.”
On March 29, the White House published a press release announcing “the electric vehicle maker VinFast will build an electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility in North Carolina – $4 billion to create more than 7,000 jobs and hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles and batteries.” President Biden claims it to be “the latest example of [his] economic strategy at work.”
In an early March press release, Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) talked about a $750,000 earmark she secured for the state Department of Transportation to provide public-facing EV charging stations.
Gasoline is a leading driver of consumer inflation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, gas price inflation is up 38% from a year ago.
On March 10, the Wisconsin Senate voted against EV charging legislation, SB 573, claiming the state’s law lacks specific guidance on EV charging, according to CleanTechnica. The bill aimed to define who can provide EV charging services, how customers will pay for it and the electricity source for the chargers.
