People don’t like that Washington’s three-year-old bipartisan infrastructure law doesn’t include many chargers for electric vehicles. But Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina said Thursday that he sees that as a good thing about the law, not a flaw.
Tillis was one of 69 senators who voted for the 2021 law. “I don’t think the government should have to spend a lot of money on that,” she said.
“Do you really think that Sheetz, Pilot, and everyone else doesn’t want people who can afford to buy an electric car to have to wait 20 minutes at Sheetz or Pilot while it charges?” What are they going to do? The senator also said, “They’re going to buy stuff.” He was talking about companies like Sheetz Inc. and Pilot Travel Centers, which are owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and run convenience stores, gas stations, and truck stops. BRK.A went up by 0.37 percent, and BRK.B went up by 0.09 percent.
Tillis said that he has talked to some large convenience store owners about EV charging. He said that the federal government “should be really smart about how much we put into it” and not “overbuild — the charger to nowhere.” He said these things at a Bipartisan Policy Center event about EV infrastructure.
This month, Buffett talked about charging for electric vehicles. Dr. Phil said at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual general meeting on May 4 that Pilot is “going to serve whatever fuel our customers need, it can be electric.” He said that the more than 800 travel centers owned by the company were in “great places on interstate highways.”
At the meeting, Buffett also said that he doesn’t see any new investment opportunities in electric vehicles (EVs). He said that Berkshire, which has owned shares in the Chinese EV company BYD 002594, +0.59% for years, doesn’t “bring any special talent to that field.”
A number of news stories have questioned how well the infrastructure law has so far provided charging stations. In March, the Washington Post said that the law set aside $7.5 billion for charging stations for electric vehicles, but in two years, only seven stations were built.
At an event put on by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a representative from the U.S. Department of Transportation said that there are now more than 183,000 EV chargers across the country. This is an increase of about 75,000 from 2020, and it is due to both public and private investment. President Joe Biden wants to see 500,000 chargers in use by 2030.
Scott Goldstein, who works for the DOT and is deputy assistant secretary for transportation policy, said, “We feel like we’re well on our way to meeting that goal.”
A survey released this year by J.D. Power found that the biggest problem EV owners are having is a lack of public chargers.
EVs have also been a big issue in the political campaigns this year. Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president, has been harsh on the Biden administration’s policies that help the growing industry.
Tillis said Thursday that he agreed with the idea that Republicans will try to get rid of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $7,500 EV tax credit if they win a lot of seats in November.
The GOP senator said, “With the electric vehicle credits, you’re giving an industry a boost, which is fine.” “But you’re giving it to a group of people who often have money, right?” For some reason, this doesn’t seem to fit the people who grew up in the trailer park where I did. I don’t see how the EV tax credit will help them now or in 10 years.
