China, with the help of the EPA, is coming for your car

OPINION:

In a presidency full of radical, unconstitutional, and harmful ideas and policies, the Biden White House may have saved one of the worst for the final months of his term. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a new rule for gas-powered vehicle emissions. The regulation would ensure that almost 70% of all new car sales are zero-emissions by 2032. Fifty-six percent of all new cars sold would have to be all electric and another 13% would have to be plug-in electric hybrid. To put this in perspective, the current share of electric vehicle sales in the U.S. is just under 10% each year.

I don’t have to say much more to prove that the Biden Administration has been attempting to eliminate fossil fuels throughout this failed presidency. There have been many onerous and illegal attempts to fundamentally transform the American energy agenda, yet this one may be felt most deeply. When this regulation officially goes into effect, most gas-powered vehicles will receive their execution warrants as manufacturers quickly acquiesce to the government’s unrealistic orders.

This rule, if enacted, would mean that your children and grandchildren will grow up in a country where they are likely forced to purchase high-priced and possibly unreliable vehicles in the absence of gas-powered cars on vehicle lots. Due to the economic laws of supply and demand, the price of gas-powered vehicles would increase substantially for consumers as the supply dwindles, leading to fewer options for Americans in need of affordable and reliable transportation.

As we have seen especially in recent months an over-reliance on electric vehicles is not what this country needs or even wants. In fact, the scheme to flood the industry with electric vehicles is playing right into the Chinese Communist Party’s hands and plans to establish a greater world dominance. China controls many key aspects of the supply chain, and American providers struggle to keep up with the lower prices from our adversary and rival from the other side of the world.

Even Elon Musk has said that many people believe that “the top ten car companies are going to be Tesla followed by the nine Chinese car companies.” You can bet that China is cheering on this new EPA rule! Many Americans oppose this government takeover and turnover of the automobile industry for good reason. In a poll from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers released earlier this year, just 16% of respondents from my state of Arizona support these efforts to ban gas, diesel, and flex-fuel vehicles and to enact electric vehicle mandates compared to 61% who oppose. Arizona was not the only state showing such ardent opposition to these radical policies from the Biden Administration. While the government is formulating these radical propositions, industry leaders are warning the Biden Administration about the consequences of its forthcoming actions.

At the end of 2023, more than 3,000 American auto dealers transmitted a letter to the president, requesting that he “tap the brakes on the unrealistic government electric vehicle mandate[to] allowthe American consumer to get comfortable with the technology and make the choice to buy an electric vehicle.”

The rental car company Hertz Global Holdings also announced its plan to sell one-third of its stockpile of electric vehicles (around 20,000), reacting to consumers’ lack of interest in its expanded inventory. The Ford Motor Company revealed that it lost billions of dollars with its share of electric vehicles for sale in 2023.

House Republicans are fighting against these un-American policies and reforms and working to inform our constituents of the harmful effects these regulations would impose on our communities. Late last year, the U.S. House passed the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act. This bill took aim at the administration’s misguided electric vehicle agenda, which is responsible for the EPA’s most-recent work of “art.”

Thanks to a Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate, this bill will likely languish in that chamber without a vote. Additionally, in May 2023, over 150 House Republicans sent a letter to the White House over its oppressive electric vehicle schemes. Americans must be aware of the economic catastrophe this new rule and others from the EPA will inflict on our children and grandchildren. There is no constitutional justification or popular support for President Biden and his federal bureaucrats to continue down this path, yet he does. And he must be stopped. The future of our nation depends on it.

• Rep. Debbie Lesko represents Arizona’s 8th Congressional District. She’s a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce where she serves as vice chair for the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and on the Subcommittees on Energy, Climate, and Grid Security, and Innovation, Data, and Commerce.