The projected costs to implement only a handful of President Biden’s most sweeping environmental regulations have an eye-popping price tag: more than $845 billion.
That’s according to an analysis of new Environmental Protection Agency policies, such as electric vehicle mandates, from Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The analysis concluded that the EPA rules to enforce Mr. Biden’s climate change agenda present “devastating” financial costs for U.S. consumers and businesses that outweigh the benefits.
“Despite clear warnings from American consumers and job creators, and loss after loss in the courts, President Biden is moving full steam ahead with his crippling, unrealistic environmental agenda in 2024,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, the committee’s top Republican. “Americans do not want and cannot afford what this administration intends to accomplish through executive overreach and deference to climate activists.”
The cost to implement six major EPA policies over the coming decades detailed in the report was based on each rule’s respective regulatory impact analysis.
Those regulations include:
• $590 billion from 2027-2055 for an EV mandate on passenger cars that requires two-thirds of new vehicles sold by 2032 to be all-electric or hybrid.
• $210 billion from 2026-2040 for a waiver sought by California to phase out 100% of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The waiver is still under consideration. Last year, the EPA granted California a waiver to begin phasing out diesel-powered trucks in favor of electric alternatives.
• $24 billion from 2027-2055 for roughly 25% of semi-trucks and other heavy-duty diesel vehicles to be electric by 2032.
• $14 billion from 2024-2042 to slash nearly all emissions from fossil fuel power plants to achieve a zero-emission electrical grid by 2035. Plants, primarily coal and natural gas-fired, would have to implement costly carbon capture technology, switch to renewables or shut down. The rule has not been finalized.
• $7 billion from 2032-2051 to limit soot pollution levels, which critics say jeopardizes domestic energy and manufacturing.
• $390 million from 2024-2035 for a proposed emissions rule that fines oil and natural gas companies for leaked methane. Critics say it will raise consumers’ energy costs and divert money from clean energy.
The EPA did not respond to a request for comment about the committee’s analysis and criticism.
Administration officials previously countered critics of the climate change regulations by arguing the rules will save lives and improve Americans’ health by drastically reducing global warming emissions.
Taxpayer dollars that Congress has appropriated under laws like the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law and the Inflation Reduction Act also could help ease some of the financial pain.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Thursday downplayed concerns about the EV mandates from auto manufacturers amid lagging sales.
Since 2020, EVs have had roughly 2.5% year-over-year growth, at which rate it would take more than 23 years without government mandates for the U.S. to reach the two-thirds EV threshold that the agency wants to achieve in eight years.
“The president has always said that he wants to make sure we do everything that we can to lower costs, lower prices,” Ms. Jean-Pierre told reporters. “This is part of that and also [to] do everything that we can to deal with a climate crisis.”