The Biden administration is set to finalize its harsh tailpipe emissions regulations on gas-powered vehicles on Wednesday as the push to move to electric vehicles (EVs) continues.
Industry insiders told Fox News that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will issue its new rules by Wednesday, which President Joe Biden has touted as a step in the right direction in the fight against climate change.
The EPA’s proposal was initially released in April 2023 to begin severely cutting back on gas-powered vehicles by 2027, with the White House projecting that 67 percent of new sedan, crossover, SUV, and light truck purchases would be fully electric by 2032.
“In addition, up to 50 percent of bus and garbage truck[s], 35 percent of short-haul freight tractor[s] and 25 percent of long-haul freight tractor[s]” would also be electric by 2032, according to the Fox News report.
In February 2024, however, the Biden administration attempted to compromise with auto manufacturers to give them more time. The upcoming EPA rules were slightly pushed back to go into effect in 2030 instead of 2027, Breitbart News reported.
Still, the overall policies remained the same. According to the White House, the proposal will aggressively “accelerate the clean vehicle transition” and reduce oil imports by 20 billion barrels.
Even though the EPA slightly relaxed the timeline for the electric vehicle transition, industry leaders are still speaking out against the upcoming finalization.
“It certainly won’t do anything to improve human health. It won’t do anything to reduce pollution,” American Energy Institute President and CEO Jason Isaac told Fox News. “We’ve proven in this country that we’re already a world leader in clean air. All it’s going to continue to do is push the costs of electric vehicles on to purchasers of internal combustion engine vehicles.”
“This is purely being done for campaign reasons — to really appease the leftist large donor base that are the climate alarmists that are driving this movement towards really what is a forced energy transition, which is just increasing the cost of everything,” he added.
Chet Thompson, president and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, has been advocating against Biden’s regulations.
“President Biden has been clear since 2020 that he intends to use his federal agencies, and the State of California, to eliminate sales of new gas cars,” Thompson told the outlet.
“While multiple administration policies push us toward this end, the EPA’s passenger vehicle standards will do most of the damage on their own — requiring approximately 70 percent of new car sales to be electric in less than eight years,” he continued, adding that the policy is “bad for consumers, the economy and national security.”
According to the industry insider, the forceful push towards electric vehicles will “sacrifice our hard-won U.S. energy strength for even greater dependence on China and the EV battery and mineral supply chain China controls.”
Thompson also pointed out that the EPA does not have an “offramp” in its proposal in case U.S. infrastructure turns out to be unable to support such a rapid transition to electric vehicles.
Republicans have already begun to fight back, with the House voting 221-197 on near-party lines in December to pass the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act, which Reps. Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA) introduced.
Not only would the resolution nix the EPA’s impending rules, it would “prevent” the agency from “implementing future vehicle emissions regulations that would mandate certain technologies or limit the availability of vehicles based on engine type,” Walberg’s office said.
The House vote took place soon after nearly 4,000 car dealers sent a letter to the Biden administration asking it to reconsider, Axios reported.
“Instead of tying the hands of American car manufacturers and forcing families to purchase vehicles not conducive to their lifestyle and pricing many families out of the market, we should encourage consumer choice,” Walberg said.
The U.S. Senate has still not voted on the bill. It referred it to the Committee on Environment and Public Works after reading it.
