Biden’s Electric Vehicle Gambit Is Illegal

[Geee]

Heritage Foundation

 

President Joe Biden is circumventing the legislative branch by moving to force people into using electric vehicles.

Manufacturers that don’t sell enough EVs have to buy credits or pay fines, increasing the price of all nonelectric cars.

Congress should use every means possible—whether through oversight, appropriations, or legislation—to expose and rein in the Biden administration’s power grab.

 

Congress has repeatedly rejected radical climate change policies that would increase the price of energy. Now, President Joe Biden is circumventing the legislative branch by moving to force people into using electric vehicles. This plan would impose the costliest regulatory burden ever inflicted on the public.

The vast majority of people don’t support phasing out and eventually banning the sale of internal combustion engine cars. At a time of record high inflation and a very expensive new and used vehicle market, these regulations raise the cost of gas-powered cars to push people toward EVs that are, on average, $18,000 more.

The opening gambit of Biden's plan has three main components. First, the Environmental Protection Agency promulgated new emissions standards for cars and trucks—standards that can be met only by electrification of at least 17% of the new fleet. Second, the EPA and the Department of Transportation worked together to bless California’s reimplementation of its separate (and illegal) greenhouse gas vehicle emissions standards and electric car mandate. Third, the Transportation Department set fuel-economy standards that cannot be achieved without electrification and that explicitly incorporate California’s electric car quota into their “baseline.” Manufacturers that don’t sell enough EVs have to buy credits or pay fines, increasing the price of all nonelectric cars. The EPA estimates the price hikes will reach thousands of dollars per car.

All of this is illegal.