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Jameson Dow

Jameson is based in Southern California and has been driving electric vehicles since 2009 and writing about EVs, sustainability and policy for Electrek since 2016.

You can contact him at jamie@electrek.co, or on his bluesky account that he just set up and maybe will never use at https://blskyl.ink/jamesondow

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Republicans won’t defeat EVs – but in fighting them, may kill US auto industry

BYD's-largest-car-transport-ship

Republicans launched multiple attacks against EVs, clean air and American jobs this week, at the behest of the oil industry that funds them. These attacks won’t be successful, and EVs will continue to grow regardless, and inevitably take over for outdated gasoline vehicles.

However, these republican attacks on EVs will still have some effect: they will diminish the US auto industry globally, leading to job losses and surrendering one of the jewels in the crown of American industry to China, where there is no similar effort to destroy its own rapidly growing domestic EV industry.

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States and nonprofits beat feds in court after withholding $5B in EV charger funds

Texas NEVI EV charging station

California and 16 other states have sued the government for illegally withholding $5 billion in funds that Congress earmarked for EV charging, calling the action “another trump gift to China.”

Update, May 22: After the initial lawsuit was filed on May 7th when this article was first written, a number of nonprofits including Sierra Club, Earthjustice, NRDC, Southern Environmental Law Center, and Plug in America joined the lawsuit today. Also, the Government Accountability Office determined today that the seizure of funds was illegal.

Update 2, Jan 23, 2026: A federal court has found that DoT violated the law by freezing the funds, and permanently bans the feds from interfering with the program.

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Republican solar cuts raise your electric bill, threaten US energy/AI dominance

House republicans passed their tax bill, which promises to inflate costs for Americans and channel money from the middle class to billionaires, all while sending jobs to China.

But that’s not the only bad stuff that’s in the bill – it will also inflate your electricity costs and threaten a recent boom in solar installations that is helping to grow domestic energy production and feed power-hungry data centers for AI.

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Toyota says RAV4 is ‘100% electrified’ in 2026, but every one has a gas engine

Toyota USA has refreshed its RAV4 for 2026, and, in a significant step forward for efficiency, Toyota has axed the non-hybrid version of the vehicle. The RAV4 will now only be available in conventional (gas-powered) hybrid and plug-in hybrid (PHEV) versions starting in the 2026 model year.

However, in an act of greenwashing reminiscent of many things Toyota has done before, it’s confusingly calling its vehicles “100% electrified” – despite that every single RAV4 includes a gas engine.

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GOP tax bill helps its biggest donor Musk, but harms his company, Tesla

Republicans announced a new tax plan today and it’s just about as bad for America as expected, taking money for healthcare, clean air and energy efficiency from American families and sending it to the ultra-wealthy instead.

You might think that this helps one of those ultra-wealthy, Elon Musk, who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to ani-EV candidates to help make this happen. But the main source of his wealth, Tesla, will be specifically harmed by rescission of EV credits – and its competitors largely won’t be.

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Congress impotently declares end to CA EV rules it can’t actually end

Republicans in Congress have voted to use its authority under the Congressional Review Act to roll back California’s states’ right to protect its own residents’ lungs and pocketbooks with better emissions rules.

But here’s the thing: Congress doesn’t have that authority, and the republican party is once again just farting in the wind with the sole purpose of letting everyone know that it wants to poison Americans and raise their fuel costs.

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