Biden says installing more EV charging stations will lead to more FAST FOOD restaurants

President Biden announced a deal with Tesla to install 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations across the country - which he believes could spring 'tiny communities' that include more fast food restaurants.

'Every gas station in America that has got built - what happens? All of a sudden you have a fast food store nearby, all of a sudden you build the community,' the president told a crowd of union workers at the IBEW Local 26 in Lanham, Maryland. 

'What we're doing with these charging stations is the same thing my grandpa did. I'm not joking - think about it. You're building communities, little tiny communities.' 

'All this is gonna take millions of barrels of oil off the road,' Biden said.  

He said the 500,000 charging stations he was pushing to get up and running would employ tens of thousands of IBEW workers due to his new requirement they be assembled in the U.S. 

Biden said Wednesday that his push to build more electric vehicle charging stations would build 'tiny communities' as fast food restaurants sprang up around them

'I said any charging station has to be installed in the United States of America. And guess what? It's going to have to be made American products.'

The $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated about $7.5 billion for expanding access to EV chargers. 

Companies that build and operate charging networks like Tesla, GM, Ford, ChargePoint and others stand to benefit from federal funding if their infrastructure projects can live up to such federal standards.

Earlier the White House touted a new commitment from Tesla to open up 7,500 of its charging stations to vehicles made by other manufacturers. Until now, Tesla supercharging stations have only functioned for Tesla vehicles. 

Tesla also agreed to triple the number of charging stations in its U.S. network.  The company has said it intended to at some point open up its charging network to all vehicles 'in support of our mission to accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.'

Among Wednesday's announcements the Energy and Transportation departments instituted new charging standards to 'ensure everyone can use the network – no matter what car you drive or what state you charge in.'

Biden sits in a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 during a visit to the Detroit Auto Show to highlight electric vehicle manufacturing in America

Earlier the White House touted a new commitment from Tesla to open up 7,500 of its charging stations to vehicles made by other manufacturers

Among the new requirements for stations built with federal funds: they must support the standard Combined Charging System plug, must have a minimum number of fast chargers, must be up and running 97 percent of the time and must be assembled in the U.S., while their steel enclosures must be made in the U.S.  By 2024, at least 55 percent of the charger's components must be made in the U.S. as well. 

But, federal funded charging stations are not required to pull from clean energy sources - something that is sure to roil environmentalists. 

Electric vehicles powered by a charge from the standard grid emit about half the greenhouse gases that gas-powered vehicles do, according to research by Project Drawdown. But electric vehicles that pull a charge from a renewable source like solar emit 95 percent less than gas-powered cars. 

Biden aims to have 50 percent of car sales be electric by 2030. He's also aimed at a net-zero emissions grid by 2035.