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The rhetoric of the Trump-Vance-Musk (TVM) Administration is that dodgy DOGE is focused on eliminating government Waste, Fraud and Abuse (WFA). Putting aside the Madoff-like accounting fraud of DOGE claims, the true Waste, Fraud and Abuse is the Musk-Trump Cabal’s actions. The General Service Administration’s (GSA’s) announcement of shutting down the GSA’s electric charger infrastructure and plans to sell off the 25,000 electric vehicles in the GSA-managed federal fleet is a significant example of true WFA.

When it comes to the GSA EV WFA, the discussions to date have been mainly stove-piped: talking specifically about, for example, direct acquisition (purchase) prices without considering fully-burdened costs and benefits. Additional costs would include, for example, procurement decision-making, land-use, training of government staff to maintain a different fleet type, other opportunity costs, and lost value by a rapid sell-off of a large fleet of vehicles. Far (FAR) more important are the enormous benefits that the TVM GSA EV WFA are throwing away that include

• Reduce energy and maintenance costs of EVs compared to ICE
• Reduced pollution (health and other impacts)
• Improved safety and efficiency of EV compared to ICE vehicles
• Improved public servant productivity
  • reducing illness and sick leave costs
  • improved productivity (due to quieter and more comfortable driving experience; lessened noise and air pollution around government offices; …)
• Moving the United States down the path toward electrification of the economy (with massive efficiency, health, etc benefits)

While articles might headline $1B in potential cost of the TVM DOGE GSA EV WFA, the true costs are likely more than an order-of-magnitude larger.