The Biden administration recently finalized new environmental regulations aiming to encourage electric vehicle adoption by enforcing stricter tailpipe emissions standards on gas-powered vehicles. The left has touted the regulatory initiative as a key aspect of Biden’s green energy agenda to fight climate change.
According to a joint statement this week from the White House and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the new regulations are some of the most aggressive emissions standards ever imposed on the auto industry. Reportedly, the rules are explicitly designed to push increased EV adoption, with a target goal of 70% of all new car sales being electric in just a few years.
“President Biden is investing in America, in our workers, and in the unions that built our middle class and established the U.S. auto sector as a leader in the world,” White House national climate adviser Ali Zaidi stated. “The President’s agenda is working.
“With transportation as the largest source of U.S. climate emissions, these strongest-ever pollution standards for cars solidify America’s leadership in building a clean transportation future and creating good-paying American jobs, all while advancing President Biden’s historic climate agenda,” added EPA administrator Michael Regan.
According to the new regulatory standards, car manufacturers will be forced to slow the emissions of greenhouse gases, hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter from new passenger cars, light trucks, and larger pickups and vans starting with vehicles made in the 2027 production year.
“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” Joe Biden said, explaining his green energy agenda. “I brought together American automakers. I brought together American autoworkers. Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs. And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”
However, these regulations have received intense backlash from conservatives and members of the energy industry. American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers put out a joint statement urging Congress to step in and intervene on the finalized regulation.
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“At a time when millions of Americans are struggling with high costs and inflation, the Biden administration has finalized a regulation that will unequivocally eliminate most new gas cars and traditional hybrids from the U.S. market in less than a decade,” the statement said. “As much as the President and EPA claim to have ‘eased’ their approach, nothing could be further from the truth.”
“This regulation will make new gas-powered vehicles unavailable or prohibitively expensive for most Americans,” the joint statement continued, emphasizing its notable impact on the average American consumer. “For them, this wildly unpopular policy is going to feel and function like a ban.”
Many industry representatives have also spoken out against the regulations, outlining the potential impacts it could have. “This decision will not only severely hamper the administration’s ability to reach its own climate goals, but it will also hurt family farms and rural communities that rely heavily on the sale of biofuels. On top of that, it will remove consumer choice from the market,” explained National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle.