This week, on the heels of expanding the invasive and costly jurisdiction of WOTUS, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled crushing, new regulations on American vehicle manufacturers. At President Biden’s direction, new cars, trucks, and tractors sold in the United States would be required to comply with his administration’s foolish plans to manipulate our free-market economy to impose electric vehicles on rural America, increase our reliance on China for critical minerals, and advance his Green New Deal agenda.
According to market data, electric vehicles accounted for only 5.8% of new vehicle sales in the United States in 2022. However, under the Biden Administration’s arduous proposal, roughly 67% of new vehicles sold in the United States would be electric by 2032 – an unthinkable jump in just ten years’ time, especially considering that 93% of all new car sales were gas-powered last year. These mandates are even more out of touch as President Biden’s own Energy Secretary, Jennifer Granholm, admitted that 4 in 5 new vehicle sales will still be powered by liquid fuels in 2050.
Additionally, the EPA’s proposed rules would not only saddle vehicle manufacturers with increased costs and red tape, but also eliminate choice for consumers already struggling under the weight of record inflation created by President Biden’s wasteful spending policies. Instead, these new regulations would force Americans to buy electric vehicles, which, on average, cost roughly $40,000 more than traditional gas-powered vehicles.
That’s why I recently reintroduced the Comparison of Sustainable Transportation (COST) Act, which would direct the Government Accountability Office and Secretary of Energy to compare the financial and environmental costs between replacing the entire federal gasoline-powered fleet with either electric vehicles or E-85 capable flex-fuel cars and trucks. As opposed to fossil fuels that power electric vehicle batteries, biofuels burn cleaner and more efficiently, reducing greenhouse gas emissions while supporting our family farmers in Iowa and nationwide.
President Biden’s new emissions proposal is a classic example of picking winners and losers in our free-market economy. Sadly, the winners are coastal elites and Green New Deal activists while the losers – as is the case with all his policies – are American families, farmers, and small businesses who will foot the bill for this taxpayer-funded giveaway through higher taxes. If President Biden truly cares about reducing emissions, he must embrace biofuels and their many benefits for our economy, our families, and our environment.
We are government together, and your thoughts and opinions matter to me. Please contact my office at Feenstra.House.Gov or by phone at 202-225-4426 if I can ever be of assistance. I am proud to represent our families, farmers, main street businesses, and rural communities in Congress.
