Suburban Detroit Congressman Andy Levin, in a guest column for a national news publication, calls for an all-out push “dripping with American innovation and creativity” to partner the federal government with the private sector and dramatically expand the building of electric vehicles.

In his guest editorial for The Hill, which is based in Washington, the Bloomfield Township Democrat advocates for the Electric Vehicle (EV) Freedom Act, legislation that he co-authored in the House.

Levin

“The EV Freedom Act is a bold proposal because it is comprehensive and it is fast,” wrote Levin, who represents portions of Oakland and Macomb counties.

“We would create a national network of publicly available, high speed EV charging infrastructure along the entire U.S. highway system, and do it within five years. It would also create good-paying, union jobs installing these high-speed chargers and substations to support them, and it would build demand for electric vehicles (creating more good auto jobs) as the expanded infrastructure bolstered consumer confidence.”

With a heavy emphasis on green energy in the Biden administration, the president has plans that include procuring a fully electric federal fleet of 645,000 vehicles and building 500,000 new EV charging stations across the country.

Levin said that the EV Freedom Act could be included in the budget reconciliation process on Capitol Hill, allowing major portions of the bill to pass the Senate by a simple majority vote. The vice chair of House Education and Labor Committee, Levin served under Gov. Jennifer Granholm as director of the Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth.

Granholm now stands as President Biden’s nominee for U.S. Secretary of Energy. During Granholm’s tenure in Lansing, she faced a rocky road as she led the way in subsidizing car battery manufacturing plants. Many of these endeavors failed.

But the battery market has transformed since then and the hopes for widespread use of EVs has blossomed, as evidenced by General Motors’ recent announcement that it will introduce 30 electric vehicle models by 2025 plan for a fleet of electric-only cars and trucks by 2035.

Levin concludes:

So, to those folks who might be asking “Can we do this?” I say, Look, are we America or not? Are we the place of ingenuity and creativity or not? Are we going to let the Chinese master electric vehicles before us? Are we going to let the Dutch or British dominate offshore wind?

… We have the opportunity … to focus on infrastructure and create industrial and energy policy allowing America to lead the way in tackling this climate crisis and revitalize our economy. We can create jobs right here. We can manufacture the EVs, solar panels, batteries and wind turbines necessary to drive an environmentally conscious industrial revolution centered on workers’ rights to make working class jobs middle class again.

 

You can read the entire column here.