Pump the Brakes on Biden’s EV Mandate
By Sen. John Thune
The Biden administration’s pursuit of its Green New Deal agenda jeopardizes Americans’ access to secure, reliable, and affordable energy. Energy costs have increased 35 percent under President Biden. The electric grid is struggling to keep up with demand. And new taxes and regulations are making life difficult for conventional energy producers. Nevertheless, the Biden administration continues to push its radical environmental agenda on the American people.
In recent weeks, the Biden administration finalized restrictive new regulations on cars and trucks, creating a de facto mandate for the majority of new car sales to be electric vehicles (EVs) by 2032. There are a number of issues with this overreaching regulation, particularly that it will be incredibly costly for most Americans. The average cost of an EV is $52,000, which would be a significant expense for most families at any time, but especially now when compounded by the effects of inflation and higher interest rates.
Most Americans are also not convinced that an EV is right for them. South Dakotans expect a lot from their vehicles. We drive our cars and trucks long distances, put them to work on farms and ranches, and they face extremely cold temperatures. We also keep them for more than 14 years on average. Unsurprisingly, South Dakotans have not been eager to trade in their car or truck for an electric model. And with gas stations still vastly outnumbering charging stations in our state, as they do in the rest of the country, the eight-year timeline the president envisions is unrealistic at best.
EVs would also place a heavy burden on our electric grid, which is nowhere near capable of supporting such a significant increase in demand. In fact, our nation’s energy grid is already being stretched by increased demand and the move away from conventional energy sources. We are rapidly approaching a situation in which we simply won’t have the ability to keep up with current electricity demand, and adding millions of electric vehicles on top of that could lead to widespread blackouts and brownouts, to say nothing of higher electricity prices.
In addition to Americans’ daily drivers, the Biden administration is also imposing new regulations on heavy-duty trucks, like those used in commercial trucking, to push truckers to switch to electric versions of their vehicles. By one estimate, the infrastructure and electricity costs of complying with the regulation could cost almost $1 trillion, which doesn’t include the cost of the new trucks themselves.
The future the Biden administration envisions is unrealistic, and forcing it on the American economy and households through heavy-handed regulations is just wrong. I have joined my Senate Republican colleagues in pushing legislation that would roll back these onerous and costly mandates, and we will see to it that the Senate takes an up-or-down vote on stopping these misguided regulations.
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This message was sponsored by Exxon-Mobil and other affiliated fossil fuel allied industries.
Just get all those ppp loans repaid and we could fund most of the infrastructure upgrades. The middle class is getting screwed by both parties, but Republicans take it to a different level.
I feel like this is copypasta from when Obama raised the bar for fuel efficient vehicles. It is almost like we get a dramatic response anytime we move away from a petrochemical reliant process. Could it be that these people are working for those same petrochemical companies, and not us voters?
Thune is actively trying to quash democratic tax breaks for the working class while implementing tax breaks for big business. Republicans don’t work for the working class anymore. They only support the rich and failed trickle down economic policy.