Biden’s
Illegal Attack on Gas-Powered Cars Must be
Sto
September 14,
2023
By Phil Kerpen
The Biden
administration’s infatuation with electric
vehicles is no secret, with billions in
subsidies lavished on them in the so-called
Inflation Reduction Act and now direct
bribes to vehicle manufacturers to shift
their production. But the president’s
so-called “transition” is not being driven
only by massive subsidies, but by draconian
mandates that will make gasoline-powered
vehicles difficult to find and exorbitantly
priced far sooner than most Americans
expect.
The Biden administration is imposing its
mandates via two separate rulemakings, one
from the EPA and one from the Department of
Transportation’s National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration or NHTSA (pronounced
nitza). The EPA rule is notionally about
carbon dioxide and other emissions, but
because there is no control technology it is
in practice a fuel economy standard, and on
shaky legal ground because NHTSA is the
agency that by law has exclusive
jurisdiction over fuel economy standards.
NHTSA has proposed its own rule that is
functionally equivalent to the EPA rule,
with the Biden administration hoping one or
the other will survive in court.
Biden’s goal is laid out plainly on the
Green New Deal page of JoeBiden.com, which
commits to “developing rigorous new fuel
economy standards aimed at ensuring 100% of
new sales for light- and medium-duty
vehicles will be electrified” and was
formalized in Biden Executive Order 14037,
which sets “a goal that 50 percent of all
new passenger cars and light trucks sold in
2030 be zero-emission vehicles, including
battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric,
or fuel cell electric vehicles.”
This policy is contrary to law.
Specifically, 49 U.S.C. § 32902(h)(1), which
states NHTSA “may not consider the fuel
economy of dedicated automobiles,” defined
as “an automobile that operates only on
alternative fuel.” This is precisely what
the Biden rules do.
Biden’s proposed miles-per-gallon standards
are twice the fuel economy of the most
efficient gasoline-powered car, the Toyota
Prius. The only way to comply with Biden’s
fleetwide standard is to dramatically
increase electric vehicle sales, and indeed
the EPA version of the rule expressly
assumes that 30 percent of vehicle sales
will be electric vehicles in model year
2027, rising to 67 percent by 2032.
Model year 2027 is right around the corner,
and 30 percent is more than triple the
current EV market share. That means
gasoline-powered vehicles will start being
harder to find and sharply more expensive,
and soon.
It’s even worse for sedans. The Biden EPA
admits that its rules imply 78 percent of
sedans sold must be electric vehicles in
model year 2032. If you’re looking for one
of 22 percent of sedans that are allowed to
be gasoline-powered, well: good luck. If you
can find one, demand will likely bid the
price through the roof.
And if you do decide to join Biden’s
transition and buy an electric vehicle, get
ready for sticker-shock on your electric
bill. Electricity prices are already up 30
percent since Biden took office and other
EPA regulations are tightly constraining new
electric generating capacity at the same
time vehicles are being forced onto the
electric grid.
According to Heritage Foundation data
scientist Kevin Dayaratna using conventional
mainstream climate models, if the United
States magically reduced our fossil fuel use
to zero, the global warming impact would be
a mitigation of 0.2 degrees of temperature
rise in the year 2100. It’s all pain and no
gain.
Americans deserve the right to buy vehicles
that suit their needs and preferences, which
overwhelmingly favor internal combustion
vehicles even with enormous federal and
state subsidies available for electric
vehicles. But litigation from Texas and
other states against the Biden
administration has been moving slowly, with
oral arguments finally taking place at the
DC Circuit this month. That decision will
likely be appealed to an en banc review
before finally reaching the Supreme Court in
2025. By then dozens of factories that make
internal combustion vehicles may have been
closed or retooled – recall the Obama EPA
bragging after its illegal anti-coal rules
were struck down that the coal plants were
already closed.
About
our Guest Dr. Judith Curry Dr.
Judith Curry is President and co-founder of
Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN).
She is Professor Emerita at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, where she served as
Chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for
13 years. Her expertise is in climate
dynamics, extreme weather, and
prediction/predictability. Curry is a Fellow
of the American Meteorological Society, the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science, and the American Geophysical Union.
Following an influential career in academic
research and administration, Curry founded
CFAN to translate cutting-edge weather and
climate research into forecast products and
services that support the management of
weather and climate risk for public and
private sector decision makers. Curry is a
leading global thinker on climate change.
She is frequently called upon to give U.S.
Congressional testimony and serve as an
expert witness on matters related to weather
and climate. Her influential blog Climate
Etc. addresses leading-edge and
controversial topics about climate change
and the science-policy interface. Her new
book Climate Uncertainty and Risk -
Rethinking the climate change problem, the
risks we are facing, and how we can respond.
World
leaders have made a forceful statement that
climate change is the greatest challenge
facing humanity in the 21st century.
However, little progress has been made in
implementing policies to address climate
change. In Climate Uncertainty and Risk,
eminent climate scientist Judith Curry shows
how we can break this gridlock. This book
helps us rethink the climate change problem,
the risks we are facing and how we can
respond to these challenges. Understanding
the deep uncertainty surrounding the climate
change problem helps us to better assess the
risks. This book shows how uncertainty and
disagreement can be part of the
decision-making process. It provides a road
map for formulating pragmatic solutions.
Climate Uncertainty and Risk is essential
reading for those concerned about the
environment, professionals dealing with
climate change and our national leaders.
Dr.
Judith Curry is President and co-founder of
Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN).
She is Professor Emerita at the Georgia
Institute of Technology, where she served as
Chair of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for
13 years. Her expertise is in climate
dynamics, extreme weather, and
prediction/predictability. Curry is a Fellow
of the American Meteorological Society, the
American Association for the Advancement of
Science, and the American Geophysical Union.
World
leaders have made a forceful statement that
climate change is the greatest challenge
facing humanity in the 21st century.
However, little progress has been made in
implementing policies to address climate
change. In Climate Uncertainty and Risk,
eminent climate scientist Judith Curry shows
how we can break this gridlock. This book
helps us rethink the climate change problem,
the risks we are facing and how we can
respond to these challenges. Understanding
the deep uncertainty surrounding the climate
change problem helps us to better assess the
risks. This book shows how uncertainty and
disagreement can be part of the
decision-making process. It provides a road
map for formulating pragmatic solutions.
Climate Uncertainty and Risk is essential
reading for those concerned about the
environment, professionals dealing with
climate change and our national leaders.