A Tesla charges at an electric vehicle charging station in New York.
Rebates and subsidies for EV charging infrastructure are driving up base utility rates for consumers as well, the AEI report states. It is estimated that if each EV sold resulted in one in-home or commercial charging infrastructure, the more than 1.1 million EVs sold in 2023 would have received more than $827 million in residential charging tax credits.
Isaac said these rebates and subsidies are then used by utility companies to lobby public utility commissions to approve higher base rates because they are enhancing their infrastructure to improve EV infrastructure.
"When you go buy a gallon of gasoline, [taxpayers] are not helping you pay for that gallon of gasoline; all the costs are embedded within a gallon of gasoline," Isaac said. "So the typical EV charge, whatever they pay at the charging station, is only a small portion of the expenses. That charging station itself has received a significant subsidy, both from the state and the federal government, and the utility has come in and increased the infrastructure or improved, enhanced the infrastructure to handle that load, and the rate payers in that particular area are picking up that burden."
DEMOCRATS TURN ON TESLA DESPITE YEARS-LONG ELECTRIC VEHICLE PUSH
"Eliminating these costly EV mandates is exactly the kind of action needed under President Trump’s energy emergency," says American Energy Institute's Jason Isaac. "It would jump-start a resurgence in the American auto industry, lower the price of new vehicles and ease pressure on our electric grid, bringing down energy costs for every household." (AP/Getty/Fox)
One anecdote used in the report to illustrate the cost burden of EV charging subsidies and rebates posits that if one homeowner were to purchase an EV charger on a street of 10 people, and the local electric company provides that homeowner with a $500 rebate, the downhill impacts lead to each of the 10 households shouldering a roughly $50 cost to build the charger as a result of the subsidized rate increases.
The increased costs on gas-powered car buyers and utility rate payers, Issac said, illustrates the need to get rid of these clean-air mandates.
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"Eliminating these costly EV mandates is exactly the kind of action needed under President Trump’s energy emergency," Isaac said. "It would jump-start a resurgence in the American auto industry, lower the price of new vehicles and ease pressure on our electric grid, bringing down energy costs for every household."
Fox News Digital reached out to several EV advocacy groups, including Drive Change. Drive Electric, Plug In America, DriveElectric USA, EVHybridNoire, the Sierra Club and the Electric Vehicle Association, but did not receive a response in time for publication of this story.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/new-research-reveals-how-ev-emissions-mandates-inflating-costs-gas-powered-cars-utilities