President Biden OKed another $5 billion in infrastructure projects as he heads out the door — even after his last big-money investment went bust over EV charging stations.
Biden’s Transportation Department announced the details of his final major infrastructure investment Friday evening, shelling out $5 billion for 560 projects across all 50 states, Washington, DC, and other US territories.
The money, which is coming from the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package Biden signed into law in 2021, will go toward rail safety and other improvements to intercity rail transit, roads, bridges, airports — and more EV charging depots, Semafor first reported.
At least $1.1 billion will be set aside for passenger and freight rail safety, $1.3 billion for bridges, roads and other surface projects, $332 million for airport infrastructure grants and $635 million for more than 11,500 EV charging ports, as well as hydrogen and natural gas stations.
The Biden administration is preparing to spend another $5 billion on infrastructure projects nationwide, according to a new report, even after his last multibillion-dollar investment went bust. REUTERSThe year the infrastructure law was signed, $5 billion was earmarked for states and localities to construct electric vehicle charging stations. Just seven of the charging stations ended up being built by June 2024 — leading to an outcry from Democrats.
“That is pathetic. We’re now three years into this … that is a vast administrative failure,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) exploded during a June hearing. “Something is terribly wrong and it needs to be fixed.”
In total, those stations comprised a couple dozen charging ports, Federal Highway Administration head Shailen Bhatt admitted before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Another $5 billion program, launched the year the law was signed, constructed just seven EV charging stations by 2024 — leading to an outcry from Democrats like Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.). REUTERSBhatt added that EV charging stations couldn’t even be deployed at rest stops under existing federal highway rules.
“By the end of 2024, there were 289 federally-funded EV charging ports open and operational,” a spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration told The Post, noting that another 36,300 are “underway across the country.”
“We expect to see thousands more operational this year, and hundreds of thousands of chargers by the end of the decade,” according to the spokesperson. “States are hitting their stride in deploying funding and installing chargers.”
The rep added that “most chargers are expected to be operable in the second half of the decade, though some states have worked more quickly than others.”
The White House had anticipated building at least 500,000 ports coast to coast on some of the nation’s busiest highways by 2030, the Federal Highway Administration spokesperson stated. At least 206,000 are available today.
A federal watchdog also faulted Biden’s Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm earlier this week for splurging nearly $10,000 more in taxpayer funds than federally permitted while attempting to promote EVs during a summer 2023 road trip.
The White House had anticipated building at least 500,000 ports coast to coast on some of the nation’s busiest highways. By last October, just 200,000 have been made available. Getty ImagesThat trip racked up almost $125,000 in total costs, the Energy Department’s Office of Inspector General also noted, and made national news when it was revealed the energy czar’s staff had deployed a gas-guzzling car to reserve a charging station for Granholm’s emission-free motorcade — causing a political firestorm.
Granholm further avoided driving a Tesla vehicle for the excursion — despite it having a larger network of chargers nationwide — and her department later added insult to injury by loaning $6.6 billion to Rivian, a rival of Elon Musk’s EV firm.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who chairs the House Oversight Committee, ripped Granholm this week for the “serious waste, fraud and abuse” on her EV excursion.
Granholm further avoided driving a Tesla vehicle for the excursion — despite it having a larger network of chargers nationwide — and her department later added insult to injury by loaning $6.6 billion to a rival of Elon Musk’s EV firm. MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock“Secretary Granholm embarked on a taxpayer-funded EV summer road trip to showcase its radical Green New Deal priorities,” Comer said in a statement. “This publicity stunt not only illustrates how out of touch the Biden Administration is with the consequences of its policies but came at the expense of American taxpayers.”
Granholm told Reuters last June that 27 states have issued commercial requests to build charging stations and she expected 1,000 EV charging stations in public places to be operational by Dec. 31, 2024, from the Biden-mandated program.
It’s unclear if that goal was reached.
Reps for the Energy Department and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
President-elect Donald Trump is looking to unwind several Biden-era renewable energy initiatives — and argued on the 2024 campaign trail that EV mandates were crippling the US auto industry.






