Vice President Kamala Harris, seeking the Democrat nomination for president, recently lobbied to eliminate gas-powered cars by 2035 — transitioning fully to electric vehicles (EVs) — despite the impact on millions of American auto jobs.
As part of a green agenda while running for president in the 2020 Democrat primary, Harris detailed her plans to abolish sales of gas-powered cars by 2035 and ensure that Americans can only purchase EVs when looking for a new car.
“[W]e will ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100 percent are zero-emission by 2035,” Harris’s agenda reads, as first reported by the Washington Free Beacon’s Thomas Catenacci:
This will require a new and improved “cash for clunkers” program with incentives for cars to be replaced with zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) manufactured in America, and extra, targeted assistance for low and middle-income families. This will establish American auto innovation and manufacturing as the best in the world for zero-emission vehicles. [Emphasis added]
Similarly, Harris said she wanted to require “that all new buses be zero-emission by 2030” and “require that new buildings are carbon-neutral by 2030.”
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks October 24, 2022, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
Harris’s EV mandate would be even more aggressive than Biden’s which seeks to ensure that a majority of new cars produced and sold in the United States market are EVs or hybrids by 2032.
Both EV mandates run the risk of wiping out millions of American auto jobs, including the jobs of United Auto Workers (UAW) members. EVs, as experts note, require far less manpower to produce than traditional gas-powered cars.
Likewise, such EV mandates would be a boon for China, which controls nearly 70 percent of the world’s lithium, 95 percent of manganese, 73 percent of cobalt, 70 percent of graphite, and 63 percent of nickel — the raw minerals needed to produce batteries for EVs.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump and his running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) are vying for support from the nation’s auto workers with a promise to end EV mandates “on day one,” ensuring that the U.S. auto industry is not forced into a government-required green energy transition.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at
