U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has been a vocal critic of several of Democratic President Barack Obama’s policies, but he said today that encouraging the development of electric cars is not one of them.
Alexander, a Tennessee Republican, said there is bipartisan agreement on the need to spur the production of affordable electric vehicles.
“I’m glad to support and applaud the president when he does things that I agree with and that I think are good for the country,” he said before a speech at a Tennessee Valley Authority forum. “I think he’s doing that in many areas of education and he’s doing it on electric cars.”
Obama has pledged to bring 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to U.S. highways by 2015, and turned to the battery industry, still in its infancy, as one of the hallmarks of his economic recovery plan.
Electric vehicles built by General Motors and Nissan are arriving in showrooms later this year and every major auto manufacturer is working on an electric strategy, encouraged by federal funding and tax incentives.