Even the most profligate advocate of big-government and green energy subsidies should be wincing at this one. Under the Biden administration and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the federal government dumped $7.5 billion into infrastructure programs - specifically, electric vehicle chargers. How many of those are now in operation?
384.
Now, when you drill down into those numbers, there are some complications, but it doesn't make this look like anything but a Brobdingnagian waste of the taxpayer's money.
U.S. states have built less than 400 electric vehicle charging ports through April under $7.5 billion federal infrastructure programs, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday.
As of April 2025, 384 charging ports are operating at 68 stations in 16 states, GAO said, saying a joint office overseeing the program "has not defined performance goals with measurable targets and time frames for its activities."
In other words: "Here's an enormous pile of federal cash. Scatter some of it around and see if any EV chargers sprout up."
The Transportation Department under President Donald Trump in February suspended the EV charging program and rescinded approval of state plans pending a review. The GAO noted that Trump wants Congress to rescind $6 billion in unspent EV charging funding.
Nationwide, there are about 219,000 publicly available EV charging ports, according to the Energy Department.
In June 2024, a Democratic senator criticized the previous Biden administration for deploying just seven EV charging stations with a few dozen ports calling it "pathetic."
We're now three years into this ... That is a vast administrative failure," said Senator Jeff Merkley. "Something is terribly wrong and it needs to be fixed."
You don't say. Oh, and for the sake of comparison, there are 198,443 gasoline stations in the United States, and to make it apples-to-apples, since the number of EV charging ports are just that - ports, equivalent to one single gas or diesel nozzle - just for the sake of argument, let's assume an average of six pumps per station, with two nozzles per pump; that's 2,381,316 gasoline or diesel ports in the United States. Even our own little local gas station, up the road in our little Susitna Valley village center, has six gasoline pumps and two diesel pumps, so I'm pretty confident with that number. And none of those stations required enormous federal subsidies.
Again, this happened under the very same Pete Buttigieg that Democrats are now talking up as a presidential candidate, and Joe Biden, who Democrats are now insisting was awake the whole time. This mess should have every taxpayer in dudgeon approaching high, demanding to know whose name is on the blame line (Pete Buttigieg) and when they will be called on the carpet for it (he probably won't.) Now, the Trump administration is trying to claw back $6 billion of that money, and we all wish them the best of luck; as federal spending goes, this seems like small potatoes, but a billion here and a billion there, and soon we're talking about real money.
Read More: Sean Duffy's Brilliant War on Pete Buttigieg
'Pothole Pete' Buttigieg and His Massive Wastes of Taxpayer Money
Every one of these chargers should have a big sign attached: "Your tax dollars at work."
At least, now, the Trump administration has put a stop to this stupidity. What a difference a president makes.
Editor’s Note: Do you enjoy RedState’s conservative reporting that takes on the radical left and woke media? Support our work so that we can continue to bring you the truth.
Join RedState VIP and use the promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership!