The Biden administration has issued its final rule governing tailpipe emissions that will force automakers to phase out gas cars by requiring up to 60% of new cars sold by 2032 to be EVs or hybrids. The emissions standards are so draconian that only a fleet dominated by EVs will meet the government’s standards.
The New York Times calls it “the most significant climate regulations in the nation’s history.” It’s also virtually guaranteed to keep millions of Americans out of the new car market and create enormous chaos on the roads. The infrastructure, including enough charging stations and mechanics to service tens of millions of electric vehicles, simply won’t be there.
But in the name of “battling climate change,” no price is too steep, no inconvenience too stupid to endure.
“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” said Mr. Biden in a statement. “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.”
The rule increasingly limits the amount of pollution allowed from tailpipes over time so that, by 2032, more than half the new cars sold in the United States would most likely be zero-emissions vehicles in order for carmakers to meet the standards.
That would avoid more than seven billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions over the next 30 years, according to the E.P.A. That’s the equivalent of removing a year’s worth of all the greenhouse gases generated by the United States, the country that has historically pumped the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The regulation would provide nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits to society, according to the agency, including $13 billion of annual public health benefits thanks to improved air quality.
“The regulation would provide nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits”? Which “benefit”? What method are they using to add up the “benefits”? It’s total, unmitigated horse manure and that the media isn’t calling these lies out shouldn’t surprise us.
“The standards would also save the average American driver about $6,000 in reduced fuel and maintenance over the life of a vehicle, the E.P.A. estimated,” according to the Times. Since the government says it, it must be so.
The transition to electric vehicles would require enormous changes in manufacturing, infrastructure, technology, labor, global trade and consumer habits.
So, no big deal, right? Not just itsy bitsy changes to all those things and more: “enormous changes.”
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a lobbying organization, has started what it says is a “seven figure” campaign of advertising, phone calls and text messages against what it falsely calls “Biden’s E.P.A. car ban” in the swing states Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona, as well as in Ohio, Montana and the Washington, D.C., market.
Note that the Times is perfectly willing to after the AFPM for their exaggeration about Biden’s “car ban” but allows the government’s lies to go unchallenged.
“They may wish for us all to drive E.V.s or no cars at all, but at the end of the day that’s not their decision,” said Elizabeth Murrill, the attorney general of Louisiana. “There is a limit to their authority to remake society in their own vision and the court has realized that.”
It’s a fraught issue that could still go either way in the courts.
