Golden Voted for Blank Check Bailout for EV Makers Before Opposing Mills’ Green Mandates

Electric Vehicles (EVs) have become a flashpoint in Maine politics over the past year thanks to an effort by the Mills Administration and left-wing outside groups to impose pro-EV mandates on car dealerships in the state.

Those mandates, which Maine’s Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) considered but narrowly rejected, would have led to Maine adopting California-style regulations requiring 82 percent of new vehicles sold in the state to be electric by 2032​.

[READ MORE on the proposed EV mandates here…]

The mandates, introduced via petition by environmental advocacy groups funded by left-wing billionaires, sparked widespread debate, especially in rural regions like the Second District, where residents rely on gas-powered vehicles for daily life.

Now, the debate over battery-powered cars and trucks has now seeped into Maine’s heated Second Congressional District race between incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Jared Golden and Republican State Rep. Austin Theriault of Fort Kent.

While both men are attempting to channel the conservative district’s manly resentment of anything thing that lacks the roar of an internal combustion engine, Golden’s congressional record — specifically his vote for the controversial Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — makes that a tricky tightrope for the former U.S. Marine to walk.

[RELATED: Golden, Pingree Steered $500,000 from “Inflation Reduction Act” to Democratic Activists…]

Although both Golden and Theriault opposed the contentious mandate policies while they were meandering through a bureaucratic state rule-making process, Theriault has alleged that Golden’s record on EVs straddles both sides of the fence, a claim that relies mostly on Golden’s vote for the IRA.

Unfortunately for Golden, Theriault is correct: the IRA was one of the largest subsidies for electric vehicles in the history of the U.S. Congress, and those subsidies were used by proponents of the proposed Maine mandates to argue that the EV goals would be achievable.

In 2022, Golden joined Democratic Rep. Chellie Pingree and unaffiliated Sen. Angus King in backing the IRA spending package — a bill Republican Sen. Susan Collins’ pointedly opposed. The Senate vote on the IRA was so narrow and divisive that Vice President Kamala Harris was forced to cast the tie-breaking vote to get the bill on President Biden’s desk.

Although the IRA was described to Americans at the time as an attempt to rein in surging inflation, the Biden Administration has more recently admitted that the spending package — originally expected to cost roughly $400 billion — was actually a “climate change” bill.

Golden, meanwhile, has justified his vote in favor of the IRA by pointing to provisions within the bill that he claims will benefit seniors who rely on Medicare.

However, the IRA’s Medicare reforms led Medicare Part D insurers to propose prescription drug premium increases this summer, a move that prompted the Biden-Harris Administration to take unconventional steps in order to block cost-increase notices from hitting seniors’ mailboxes prior to the elections.

[RELATED: With Inflation Reduction Act Poised to Spike Medicare Drug Costs, White House Preps Election Eve Bailout…]

Although the IRA did make changes to Medicare, a federal health insurance program available to American seniors, the vast majority of the bill, in terms of taxpayer dollars spent, was reserved for “green energy” related subsidies and tax credits.

In fact, none of the lawmakers who voted in favor of the IRA can even say with any accuracy how much taxpayer funding will go to EVs as the result of the IRA because the bill was effectively a blank check for EV tax credits.

As the Wall Street Journal editorial board has noted, lawmakers failed to place any caps on funding for EV tax credits, and those tax credits have become far more popular than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) originally forecasted.

According to an analysis by Goldman Sachs, the uncapped subsidies could now result in the IRA costing more than $1 trillion, rather than the original CBO estimate of less than $400 billion.

The IRA’s provisions include a $7,500 Clean Vehicle Tax Credit for consumers purchasing new electric vehicles and a $4,000 credit for used EVs. The act also allocated funds for EV charging infrastructure and offered tax incentives for businesses purchasing heavy-duty electric vehicles.

Because the EV credits subsidized demand for the battery-powered vehicles in a very public and predictable manner, manufacturers and dealers reacted by raising the price of EVs in conjunction with the new credits. In some cases, the price increases were almost exactly equal to the new IRA subsidies.

[RELATED: Dem Jared Golden Trails GOP’s Austin Theriault in ME-CD2: Poll…]

As a result, the EV credits, though intended to help consumers purchase the chargeable automobiles, wound up simply transferring money to EV manufacturers, making the IRA a massive bailout — with no upper limit — for EV makers.

According to Theriault, Golden’s vote in favor of the IRA and its EV subsidies is a case of Golden saying one thing in his district — i.e. EV mandates are bad — while voting differently while in Washington, D.C.

Although state-level mandates for EV sales are distinct from federal subsidies for EVs, the two policies are not unrelated. When supporters of the mandate were arguing in favor of the feasibility of the requirements, their arguments relied on the big EV subsidies provided under the IRA as well as federal dollars the law made available for EV infrastructure projects.

Golden and Theriault will square off for their first debate on Thursday evening, and Golden’s IRA vote is likely to fall into Theriault’s crosshairs as he attempts to make the case that the incumbent Democrat is not the moderate maverick he’s portrayed himself as.

Another line item from the IRA is also likely to surface as the candidates spar Thursday evening. As reported exclusively by the Maine Wire, the IRA included a $500,000 grant — specifically touted by Golden and Rep. Pingree — to a left-wing political group that has been hiring pro-Democrat canvassers in the Bangor area.

So far, only one opinion survey featuring the race has been made public. That poll — conducted by Pan Atlantic Research — showed Theriault with a slim three-point lead over Golden.