Pete Buttigieg Promotes Electric Cars; Public Transportation as Solution to High Gas Prices

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promoted electric cars on Monday as a solution to Americans struggling from high gas prices.

“Clean transportation can bring significant cost savings for the American people as well,” Buttigieg said, touting President Joe Biden’s $5 billion plan to bolster America’s electric charging network.

“So the people from rural, to suburban, to urban communities can all benefit from the gas savings of driving an EV,” he said.

The failed presidential candidate and former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, spoke at the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris to promote clean transportation after the average cost of gas spiked over $4 a gallon over the weekend.

During his speech, Buttigieg criticized gas-powered vehicles for their impact on pollution and climate change.

“In our economy, transportation is the single biggest contributor to climate change,” he said disapprovingly.

He promoted the Biden administration’s effort to convert public transit to electric buses and encouraged all Americans to ride buses instead of driving to reduce pollution.

“One of our best tools for doing that is public transit; transit gets riders for where they need to be efficiently and affordably with far less pollution from driving,” he said, asserting that electric buses “don’t pollute at all.”

Since becoming the transportation secretary, Buttigieg has repeatedly urged Americans to purchase electric vehicles to save the climate and save money.

Only nine percent of passenger vehicles sold in the world in 2021 were electric, and only 535,000 electric vehicles were purchased in the United States.

“The people who stand to benefit most from owning an EV are often rural residents, who have the longest distances to drive. They often burn the most gas,” Buttigieg said in a November interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart.

The Biden administration has focused intently on heavy subsidies for the electric vehicle industry and making the moral argument that they are superior to gas-powered vehicles.
In November, President Biden also urged Americans to look at buying an electric vehicle.

“For the hundreds of thousands of folks who bought one of those electric cars, they’re going to save $800 to $1000 in fuel costs this year,” he said.