A congressional hearing on building out a domestic supply chain for electric vehicles turned into a battleground Tuesday as Democrats and Republicans debated sharply different strategies for responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the dizzying increases in gas prices Americans are facing at the pump as a result.

As President Biden announced a ban on the import of Russian oil — a move both parties support — Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy saw the crisis as yet another reason to move the nation toward clean energy, while Republicans wanted to double down on oil and gas production. Average gas prices across the U.S. stand at $4.25/gallon, according to AAA.

“This crisis is a stark reminder: To protect our economy over the long term, we need to become energy independent,” Biden said in his speech on the import ban. “Loosening environmental regulations or pulling back clean energy investment will not lower energy prices for families, but transforming our economy to run on electric vehicles powered by clean energy, with tax credits to help American families winterize their homes and use less energy, that will help.”

Speaking at the subcommittee hearing, Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), chair of the full committee, echoed the president, saying, “The lesson from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not that we need to drill more. America is already the largest oil and natural gas producer in the world, and that has not protected us from global oil shocks. … EV investments will not lower prices a ton for all consumers today, but neither will Republican efforts to force open more public lands to drilling.”

But Republicans at the hearing countered that talking about EVs amid the current crisis was irrelevant and called on Biden to quickly boost domestic oil and gas production by lifting restrictions on permitting for pipelines and for drilling on federal land. “It is time we stand up to [Russian] aggression and help our allies in Europe fight back by flooding the global market with affordable and reliable American energy,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), the subcommittee’s ranking member.

Committee Ranking Member Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) called Democrats’ support for the U.S. EV market a “command-and-control approach … central to a radical agenda to dismantle America’s tremendous energy systems,” which would ultimately play into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands. “We must come together and say ‘no’ to Putin … and say ‘yes’ to flipping the switch on domestic production of oil and cleaner American natural gas.”

Witnesses at the hearing also presented opposing views on the expansion of EVs and charging infrastructure.

Thomas Pyle, president of the Institute for Energy Research, said he supports energy freedom and the right of Americans to choose EVs but opposes government mandates on energy technologies and fuels. Pyle pointed to EPA’s recent update of fuel efficiency standards for light-duty vehicles to 40 mpg by 2026 as “a de facto electric vehicle mandate. To meet the standard, about 17% of vehicles sold by model year 2026 will have to be electric,” he said. (See EPA Rules Will Slash Vehicle Emissions, Rev up EV Market by 2026.)

He also argued that the U.S. should learn from Europe’s “rushing to green,” which had left it overly dependent on Russian oil.

“This invasion was a huge wake-up call,” Pyle said. “It took, unfortunately, this for Europe to recognize that they were moving too fast; they weren’t investing in diversification of their supplies.”

‘Massive Customer Demand’

Industry speakers, however, maintained that vehicle electrification is increasingly market- and customer-driven.

Bob Holycross, vice president for sustainability, environment and safety engineering at Ford Motor Co., said his company’s $50 billion investment in EVs over the next five years is not about “rushing to green. These are products that customers are demanding, and we need to provide that bridge for them to help with the access and affordability.”

The company recently announced it was creating distinct units for its EV and internal combustion engine businesses. In response to high demand for the F-150 Lightning, the electric version of the company’s popular pickup, Ford is doubling production of the truck at its plant in Dearborn, Mich., he said. “Massive customer demand … validates that this is the right direction to move.”

The investments by major companies like Ford and the $7.5 billion for a nationwide EV charging network in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act are providing momentum for the domestic supply chain, according to Natalie King, CEO of Dunamis Energy Partners of Detroit.

Branching out from her company’s core energy efficiency contracting business, King has started an EV charger manufacturing subsidiary, Dunamis Discharge, which she described as “probably the first African-American-[owned] electric vehicle manufacturer in this country.”

The company will be producing Level 2 chargers that meet federal “Buy America” standards at its plant in Detroit beginning this summer, King said, with DC fast-chargers to follow in early 2023. She expects to create 150 jobs at the plant with “workforce development efforts [focused] on underrepresented, economically disadvantaged Detroit communities.”

In response to a question from Pallone, King also said that domestic manufacturing of EV charging hardware and software will help to ensure to system cybersecurity.

With American-made projects, “we do have the ability to secure … our network software,” King said. “If we have the control over how we create, how we engineer and how we design and how we maintain our network software through our EV infrastructure, then we now have the ability to control cyberattacks [and] hacking from outside influences, like a dominating China,” she said.

State and Regional Initiatives

State policies are also driving EV adoption and the buildout of charging infrastructure, Cassandra Powers, senior managing director at the National Association of State Energy Officials, said as she reeled off a long list of state and regional initiatives.

A Southeast Regional Electric Vehicle Information Exchange is bringing together Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands “to support  infrastructure planning, policy development and program implementation, with a focus on rural and underserved areas,” Powers said. Tennessee is also working on putting 50 DC fast-chargers on highways across the state, while Florida is also “prioritizing DC fast-charger investments along key corridors and also among evacuation routes in underserved areas,” she said.

Powers said a holistic approach is needed to ensure EV chargers are sited across urban, suburban and rural communities, as well as disadvantaged neighborhoods. “There’s also a need to coordinate impending infrastructure buildout with enhanced transmission, distribution and generation planning,” she said.