June 6, 2025 | Travis Madsen, Transportation Program Director
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What are your elected officials doing to help you save money and help create prosperity in your community?
If you answered “accelerating our transition to electric vehicles,” you’re onto something important.
We at the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project estimate that you could save more than $30,000 on the all-in cost of a pickup truck driven over 200,000 miles in Arizona or Nevada by going with a battery-powered model instead of gasoline. That’s more than 25% cheaper. If we shifted every vehicle in America to run on energy-efficient electric technology, we’d save $2.7 trillion through mid-century — or about $1,000 per family per year. (The major reason why? Electric vehicles (EVs) are more efficient than combustion vehicles, and electricity is cheaper than gasoline. Go here to explore how much cheaper it is in your area.)
Rapidly transitioning to EVs would also generate a net of two million new jobs by 2035 — jobs like those that are emerging in battery technology and vehicle manufacturing in Northern Nevada and Southern Arizona — jobs that could be opening soon at the American Battery Factory plant near Tuscon; or the Lyten, Octillion or Tesla factories near Reno.
In May 2025, Senators Kelly and Gallego in Arizona and Senators Rosen and Cortez-Masto in Nevada cast an important vote in support of making EVs more available and affordable — helping us to save money on gas. Specifically, they voted to defend the ability of state governments to regulate vehicle tailpipe pollution under the federal Clean Air Act — the authority that leading states have used to encourage vehicle manufacturers to design and sell more zero-emission vehicles of all kinds.
Look up your Senators’ contact information here and thank them for voting to help you save money and encourage the growth of electric transportation. (If you are from a state outside of Arizona or Nevada, you can see how your Senator voted here — in this case, Senators who voted “no” supported electric transportation, and Senators who voted “yes” chose to waste money and prolong our dependence on oil.)
The same week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to advance their “One, Big, Beautiful” budget bill. Unfortunately, this bill would obliterate federal incentives that support battery manufacturing and EV deployment. The REPEAT project estimates that without federal EV incentives, “between 29% and 72% of battery cell manufacturing capacity currently operating or online by the end of 2025 would be unnecessary to meet automotive demand and could be at risk of closure, in addition to 100% of other planned facilities.” That means people currently working in battery manufacturing or EV assembly in the Southwest could lose their jobs — and future opportunities in the industry would dry up. The International Council on Clean Transportation estimates that the bill could eliminate more than 10,000 direct jobs in Nevada and 3,200 jobs in Arizona by 2030. More than $17 billion in investment is at risk — along with all the jobs that would indirectly support through spending throughout the community.
Representative Mark Amodei, who represents the Northern Nevada region that is emerging as one of the most important hubs of mineral supply, battery technology, and manufacturing in the country, said at an event hosted by the Zero Emission Technology Association that attacks on incentives to promote battery manufacturing and drive national demand for EVs was “a red line” for his vote. Quoted by The Nevada Independent, Rep. Amodei said that “Pursuing those because it’s the right policy for your region and your people, regardless of whether you’re a donkey or an elephant or a wild horse or whatever you are, is a smart thing to do.”
By May, however, Rep. Amodei walked some of that commitment back. Ultimately, Amodei voted for a bill that would cut off EV deployment credits at the end of 2025 and dramatically restricts manufacturing incentives within the next two years.
Representative Juan Ciscomani, who represents a district near Tuscon in Southern Arizona where major battery factory investments are underway, also expressed support for clean energy incentives as a tool to increase energy independence and provide local jobs. While he didn’t publicly announce any red lines on energy incentives, he did tell Politico that “these tax credits have had an impact in my district — and on job creation, on investment, also national security, because of energy production and having wanted to bring that more domestically.”
However, he ended up voting for a bill that undermines the advanced energy technology businesses in his district.
Representatives Ciscomani and Amodei joined 19 other House Republicans in a March letter to the House Ways and Means committee asking for restraint in changing clean energy credits. Those representatives had the potential to make a major difference in the final shape of the House budget bill, given that it only passed by one vote. But the bill they voted for substantially rolls back federal support for clean energy manufacturing and deployment, and would likely result in the cancellation of local investments and dramatically reduced support for efficient transportation.
The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, which could moderate proposed changes to EV, battery manufacturing and/or other advanced energy incentives. After that, the House will have to vote on whether or not to concur with the Senate changes.
Look up your Representatives’ contact information here and ask them to use their power to help you save money and create jobs in your community by supporting federal investments in clean, efficient transportation.
