Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) was pressed on his perceived switch in stance toward electric vehicles amid his condemnation of the Biden administration for pushing them.
Speaking on an oil rig in Texas, DeSantis denounced the administration’s subsidizing of electric vehicles, arguing that it was part of a wider effort to “control our behavior.” In a sit-down interview with ABC News, Journalist Linsey Davis pointed out how he had subsidized electric vehicles himself during his position as governor of Florida. DeSantis denied that there was any contradiction in his actions.
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“Well, there hasn’t been a change,” he retorted. “So as governor, I got money from the Volkswagen settlement to do EV infrastructure, so I can either use it or lose it. So that’s why we did it. We put in the charging stations, but I would never support mandating the production of EVs. I think that should be driven by the market.”
DeSantis then tied the issue to larger problems, such as national security.
“We’re also now in a situation where this is the worst inflation and the highest cost families have faced in America for many decades,” he continued. “And they’re getting hit from all sides. Energy dominance, using the resources we have, that is one way to reduce prices at the pump, which is hurting people but also prices throughout the economy because energy prices permeate the cost of goods and it affects businesses.”
Following the reveal of his six-pronged policy outline, the Florida governor came under fire from the Biden campaign, which portrayed his plan as dangerous and counterproductive.
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“This is a deeply unserious and impractical plan that won’t actually lower gas prices to $2 per gallon and is chock-full of the climate denialism that defines the MAGA Republican Party,” Biden campaign spokesman Ammar Moussa said in a statement.
He added, “Voters need look no further than DeSantis’s own state — where his agenda is leading to skyrocketing energy costs for his constituents and natural disasters are causing tens of billions of dollars in damages — to know what DeSantis’s plan would mean for the country.”
