Comer, Fallon Probe Secretary Granholm’s Taxpayer-Funded EV Road Trip

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs Chairman Pat Fallon (R-Texas) today initiated an investigation into U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm’s 2023 taxpayer-funded electric vehicle (EV) road trip. The trip, which consisted of travel across multiple states, was “intended to draw attention to the billions of dollars the White House is pouring into green energy and clean cars.” At one point during the trip, Secretary Granholm’s vehicles blocked an EV charging station, resulting in an American family calling the police out of urgency. In a letter to Secretary Granholm, Chairman Comer and Rep. Fallon request documents and communications to understand the purposes, costs, and consequences of Secretary Granholm’s summer 2023 EV road trip.

“We are alarmed by recent reports of your four-day summer 2023 electric vehicle (EV) road trip apparently intended to showcase the Biden Administration’s progress in achieving a radical green agenda. Using an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle, your Department of Energy (DOE) staff blocked off an EV-only charging station so you could stay on a schedule which was ‘painstakingly mapped out ahead of time’ because of limited, slow, and nonworking EV chargers along your route. In ‘sweltering’ Georgia heat, your staff’s actions caused a family with an infant child and low charge on their EV battery to call the police out of urgency while waiting at this charging station,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Oversight Committee is investigating the impact of the Biden Administration’s attempt to force a radical increase in the number of EVs on America’s roads and to impose sweeping green regulation on traditional cars, trucks, other highway vehicles, and locomotives. According to estimates by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the EPA’s new proposed rules would require that electric vehicles compromise 67 percent of all new car sales by 2032. A radical adoption of EVs through burdensome regulation poses risks to the already strained U.S. power grid and supply chain, removes consumer choice, and leaves domestic energy producers searching for answers.

“This taxpayer-funded publicity stunt illustrates yet again how out of touch the Biden Administration is with the consequences of policies it has unleashed on everyday Americans. Committee Republicans remain committed to preserving freedoms like vehicle consumer choice in the face of an unproven, burdensome, and expensive Biden Administration push to force all Americans to buy EVs,” the lawmakers continued.

Read the full letter to Secretary Granholm here.