. The administration invested $7.5 billion to build charging stations across the country. Two years later and only eight have been built.transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg for an explanation during this past Sunday's Face the Nation. He struggled to answer.So the president's goal is to have half a million chargers up by the end of this decade. Now, in order to do a charger, it’s more than just plunking a small device into the ground," answered Buttigieg.
Copper is used to generate electricity, it’s used to move electricity, it’s used to store electricity, so above every other metal in the periodic table copper is the most critical," explained Adam Simon, a professor at Michigan and one of the study's leaders. "Current mine production of copper is about 20 million tons per year, global. We need to double it to 40 million tons per year and we cannot do that at existing mines. Like no way, no how.
Simon tells us it’s not as simple as ramping up production. More mines have to be built and that will take decades.