Biden plan to ban gas cars

 President Joe Biden knows that most people don’t want the sale of new gas-powered cars and trucks banned. That is why his administration tried ludicrously to spin the new tailpipe emissions rule as an expansion of “consumer choice.”

“This technology-neutral and performance-based standard gives the auto industry the flexibility to choose the combination of pollution-control technologies best suited for their customers,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan said last week. “Let me be clear: Whether it’s battery electric, plug-in hybrid, advanced hybrid, or cleaner gasoline vehicles, we understand that consumer choice is paramount.”

Regan’s entire statement is false. The EPA regulation is designed to limit what type of cars and trucks we may buy. The rule limits carbon tailpipe emissions to levels so low that they can only be achieved by having 67% of cars and trucks sold be electric vehicles. Car companies that build too many gasoline vehicles will face billions of dollars in fines.

The EPA’s message to manufacturers is clear: You must stop building gasoline cars, or we will put you out of business. 

When Biden unveiled his electric vehicle mandate last year, the phaseout of gasoline cars was more aggressive, with 60% of all cars sold set to be electric by 2030 and 67% by 2032. But auto unions balked at these numbers as unrealistic. Biden has therefore slowed the implementation of the final rule while keeping the final target. Manufacturers now must have only half their fleets electric by 2030, with a sudden jump to 67% only two years later.

Electric vehicles have grown from 3% of all sales in 2021 to 8% last year, goosed by $7,500 federal tax credits. But sales have slowed again as drivers have discovered that battery-powered cars are unreliable and inconvenient. Battery range can be cut in half by cold weather or heavy loads. That doesn’t even touch the fact that electric vehicle charging stations are few and far between. Even when they are available, many don’t work.

As more drivers experience electric vehicles, they like the ban on gas-powered vehicles less. In 2021, just 51% of adults opposed phasing out gas-powered vehicles, according to Pew. Today, it’s 59%. Excuse the tautology by drivers who want to be able to buy the cars they want to buy. 

By back-ending the phaseout of gas-powered vehicles, Biden is trying to postpone the pain. But that increases uncertainty in the industry. If it becomes clearer two years from now that even the EPA’s new, more lenient schedule is unrealistic, will Biden push it back again? Will he abandon his campaign promise that half of all cars sold will be electric by 2030? At some point, as the technology fails him, Biden has to admit reality, right?

Or maybe he doesn’t. Even if Biden wins this year, he’ll be out of office by the time the strictest EPA regulations hit. That is the next guy’s problem. But it is also everyone’s problem, which is why, if you want to keep gas-powered cars an option, Biden must be voted out of office.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/2934542/biden-plan-to-ban-gas-cars/#google_vignette