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Oct 21, 2024

Post misleads on funds for internet access, EV charging | Fact check

An Oct. 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims billions of dollars meant to expand high-speed internet access and build electric vehicle charging stations hasn't been used. “Kamala Harris

An Oct. 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims billions of dollars meant to expand high-speed internet access and build electric vehicle charging stations hasn't been used.

“Kamala Harris and Joe Biden promised to use $42 billion dollars (sic) to expand internet to the entire country and not one single house or business received service,” reads text in the image, which is a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter. “$42 billion dollars. Not one dollar was used for its intended purpose.”

It continues, “Pete Buttigieg promised to use $7.5 billion to expand electric vehicle charging in America. Only 7 EV charging stations have been produced in 3 years. We paid more than $1 billion per charger.”

The post was liked more than 12,000 times in two weeks. The post on X has been reposted more than 2,000 times. Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for Vice President, also shared the claim on X.

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Officials say the $42 billion high-speed internet allotment was designed to be part of a longer-term program, so minimal spending at this point was expected. But some of the money has been used by states to plan their projects, and other funds have been approved to pay for construction once plans are finalized.

The charging station stat is outdated, as the federal funds have now funded 20 stations, not seven. And there are plans for hundreds more, a spokesperson said.

In November 2021, President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill into law. It included about $42 billion to expand access to high-speed internet nationwide through the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment program.

To access the money, states and territories are required to make a series of detailed plans for how it will be used and get approval from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, which oversees the program.

A portion – about $250 million – has already been given to states and territories to help pay for the planning process, said Charlie Meisch, a spokesperson for the agency.

In addition, more than $24 billion had been made available to states and territories for construction as of Oct. 8, Alan Davidson, the agency’s assistant secretary of commerce for communications and information, said in a speech that day.

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Six states are accepting applications from internet service providers looking to be involved in the projects, and five others are expected to begin that process soon, Meisch said. Some states could start construction sometime in the next year, though others will go beyond that.

The program was designed with a long timeline in order to serve areas that other federal and state projects won’t reach, Meisch said.

“It’s set up in the law to have a longer timeline in part because it’s meant to be the cleanup batter that finishes the job,” he said.

Biden’s infrastructure law also included $7.5 billion for electric vehicle charging – $5 billion to the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program and $2.5 billion for the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure program.

The post is an apparent reference to a March 28 report by The Washington Post, which is headlined, “Biden’s $7.5 billion investment in EV charging has only produced 7 stations in two years.”

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Two years after the law was signed, the program had “delivered seven open charging stations with a total of 38 spots where drivers can charge their vehicles” in four states, the Post reported at the time. But it also said charging stations were being built in four more states, and construction contracts were awarded in 12 additional states.

The program has ramped up some in the nine months since.

As of Oct. 11, there were 20 stations with 81 operational charging ports in nine states built with National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure funds, a spokesperson for the Federal Highway Administration told USA TODAY. And those numbers are expected to grow as there are plans underway in 33 states for a total of 3,320 charging ports across 830 charging stations.

While the cost to install a charging port varies by location, the average is about $199,000, the Federal Highway Administration said.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

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