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Dear Decaturish,

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, Representative Hank Johnson is uniquely positioned to help move our transportation system forward. The transportation sector is our nation’s leading greenhouse gas emitter, so to reduce our carbon footprint we need to address our transportation emissions.

Unfortunately, some view electric vehicles (EVs) as a silver bullet to addressing this issue. But new research shows that in places where the electric grid is still heavily reliant upon coal, like Georgia, EVs could actually produce more pollution overall than traditional vehicles.

Therefore, it is disappointing to see some policies being pushed to promote EV usage at the expense of low-income families, like in the recently passed House Transportation bill.

A policy included in the bill would allow utility companies to increase the electric bills on their customers to pay for EV charging stations, in addition to receiving federal grants. While the lack of charging stations is clearly a hindrance to the adoption of EVs, low-income families should not have their heating bills increased to cover the construction of EV chargers.

As Congress hammers out the differences between the transportation packages passed in both the House and the Senate, I hope Representative Johnson will oppose using the “utility model” to build EV chargers.

– Baoky Vu

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