The Kentucky House is trying to limit electric vehicle purchases by state government agencies in favor of vehicles with internal combustion engines. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

FRANKFORT — Auto manufacturers are investing billions in Kentucky to build electric vehicles, but some state agencies wouldn’t be able to buy them under a mandate from the Republican House.

The two-year state spending plan passed by the GOP-dominated House this month would require various state agencies looking to buy new vehicles to purchase only those that have internal combustion engines — meaning primarily gasoline-powered vehicles. That would exclude electric vehicles because they are powered by a battery, not an internal combustion engine. Hybrid vehicles use an internal combustion engine paired with a smaller electric battery.

Frank Jemley, the president and CEO of the Kentucky Association of Manufacturers, said his group wants to see the mandate modified to allow state agencies to purchase from a wide variety of vehicle options, ranging from hybrids to EVs.?

“The Kentucky automotive industry is moving, as you know, well beyond internal combustion engines to hybrids and plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles,” Jemley said. “We should not limit state government’s purchases to the only technology that seems to be allowed in the current provision.”

Stuart Ungar, the co-founder of the EV advocacy group Evolve KY, criticized the mandate as “embracing the past” and something that could cost taxpayers due to EVs having lower maintenance costs and lower fuel costs.

“It’s 2024 — they really should be open to including electric vehicles,” Ungar said. “Not to mention car companies really stepping up and investing in Kentucky in a big way with electric vehicles and electric vehicle batteries. So it’s just really puzzling to me.”?

Kentucky’s auto manufacturers Ford and Toyota in recent years have announced billions of dollars of investments in building or converting factories to manufacture EVs. Toyota earlier this month announced it was boosting its investment to $1.3 billion for converting its long-time manufacturing plant in Georgetown to produce electric SUVs. Ford is also investing $5.8 billion into an EV battery manufacturing plant in Hardin County called the Blue Oval SK Battery Park, promising to create 5,000 jobs.?

The mandate applies to some agencies that the House budget approved to add vehicles to their fleets, including new vehicles for inspectors in the Department of Housing, Buildings and Construction; transport vehicles in the Department of Juvenile Justice; Kentucky State Police cruisers, and new vehicles purchased by the Office of Fleet Management, which manages thousands of vehicles in the state’s vehicle fleet.??

Laura Goins, spokesperson for House GOP leadership, told the Lantern that lawmakers wanted to ensure vehicle reliability. “This language is consistent with the House Majority’s commitment to responsibly investing each taxpayer dollar. The vehicles in question are used to provide necessary and sometimes critical services, making the proven reliability of an internal combustion engine preferable,” Goins said.

President Joe Biden issued an executive order in 2021 requiring most federal vehicle acquisitions to be zero-emission vehicles by 2035 to help “accelerate a rapidly changing transportation sector” and “support emission reductions in pollution overburdened communities.”?

The largest source of the heat-trapping greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in the United States is transportation emissions, according to the Congressional Budget Office. In 2019, the large majority of those transportation emissions came from cars and trucks.?

Other states have moved forward with efforts to add electric vehicles into their state fleets, with Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signing a directive to convert the state’s fleet to zero-emission vehicles by 2040.?

A spokesperson for the Kentucky Finance and Administration Cabinet, which the Office of Fleet Management operates under, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the internal combustion engine mandate.?

In an interview last year with Government Fleet, an industry magazine for vehicle fleet managers, Office of Fleet Management administrative branch manager David Fint said the Kentucky fleet department was transitioning some of its inventory to EVs and had added two EV charging stations at a service garage.?

The Finance Administration Cabinet in a state budget request last year had asked for $1,787,000 to expand the number of EV charging stations for EVs managed by the cabinet in Frankfort. The funding would build 165 total EV charging stations to add to existing chargers for the state fleet’s motor pool and add chargers at state buildings around Frankfort.?

The request stated if not funded, it would be “difficult, if not impossible” for the fleet to remain complaint with state law that requires the state to replace at least 50% of its vehicles with “alternative fuel” vehicles by 2026.

The funding request for chargers is allocated in Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s budget proposal. The chargers are not funded in HB 6, the budget passed by the GOP-dominated House.

This story may be updated.