The Biden administration is expected this week to finalize highly anticipated regulations targeting gas-powered vehicle tailpipe emissions, considered the tip of the spear in its efforts to electrify the transportation sector.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is slated to issue the final rulemaking — which officials have boasted will incentivize greater adoption of electric vehicles (EV), but which opponents have criticized as a de facto mandate — as soon as Wednesday, industry sources told Fox News Digital. The regulations, a key part of President Biden’s climate agenda, would ultimately force automakers to more rapidly expand electric options in their fleets beginning in a matter of years.
“It certainly won’t do anything to improve human health. It won’t do anything to reduce pollution,” American Energy Institute president and CEO Jason Isaac, who has researched the EV market, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We’ve proven in this country that we’re already a world leader in clean air. All it’s going to continue to do is push the costs of electric vehicles on to purchasers of internal combustion engine vehicles.”
“This is purely being done for campaign reasons — to really appease the leftist large donor base that are the climate alarmists that are driving this movement towards really what is a forced energy transition, which is just increasing the cost of everything,” Isaac added.
Overall, under the proposal, which EPA unveiled in April 2023 and will go into effect in 2027, the White House projected that 67% of new sedan, crossover, SUV and light truck purchases would be electric by 2032. In addition, up to 50% of bus and garbage truck, 35% of short-haul freight tractor and 25% of long-haul freight tractor purchases could also be electric by then.
The White House said the proposal, which represents the most aggressive proposal of its kind ever proposed, would “accelerate the clean vehicle transition” and reduce oil imports by 20 billion barrels. Biden and climate activists have taken aim at the transportation sector over its high emissions profile — it alone produces roughly 29% of America’s greenhouse gas emissions, federal data shows.
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In January, EPA submitted its final regulations to the White House for review, and in recent weeks, the Office of Management and Budget has hosted a flurry of meetings with energy industry officials, business leaders, automakers and environmental activist groups, according to federal filings.
And last month, the New York Times reported that the agency had endorsed its so-called “alternative C” approach, which would loosen the rule implementation between 2027-2030, the early years of the proposal, before aggressively ramping up in 2031 and 2032. Industry groups said such an approach would be just as damaging for consumers, since the end result would remain unchanged.
Biden finalizes illegal fuel economy rule.
Here's why it's illegal and will be eventually overturned, but not without causing a lot of confusion and damage first:
1. "EPA issued an ambitious proposed rule last April that called for EVs to account for 67 percent of all new… pic.twitter.com/e8aQJiyDfe
— Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) March 20, 2024
