As America grapples with unprecedented inflation, soaring grocery bills and a deadly school shooting that targeted Christians, President Joe Biden and his administration have opted to focus on gas-powered vehicles.
According to a new report from Reuters, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to enact “sweeping cuts in vehicle emissions pollution that will push automakers towards a big increase in electric vehicle sales.”
That big push for electric vehicle sales, naturally, means a big decrease in gas-powered vehicle sales.
“Environmental groups and some automakers think the proposal will result in at least 50 percent of the U.S. vehicle fleet by 2030 being electric or plug-in hybrids,” the report notes.
Per a separate Bloomberg report, these momentous announcements are expected to be made on Wednesday in Detroit.
According to the two reports, it does appear that these sweeping changes stop just short of a full-on ban of gas-powered vehicles.
While these moves are being made with “green” and environmental concerns at heart, the move still appears to be ruffling feathers — even among those who are onboard with green initiatives.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents nearly all automakers (including heavy-hitters like Ford and Volkswagen) made it clear that the issue wasn’t the move to electric vehicles, the issue was the timing of the move.
“The question isn’t whether it can be done, it’s how fast can it be done,” the alliance told Reuters.
The main concern with the timing of this move, according to the alliance, is that automakers are worried about improving the current fleet of cars — only for those cars to be all but phased out as electric vehicles become more prominent.
“Every dollar invested in internal combustion technology is a dollar not spent on zero carbon technology,” the alliance added.
Bloomberg also notes that automakers have actually been asking Biden for more time to better prepare for a mass shift to electric vehicles, while electric vehicle manufacturers, like Elon Musk’s Tesla, actually want the government to enact even stricter restrictions on gas-powered vehicles.
As it stands, these changes could be sneaking up on Americans far sooner than expected.
Biden’s crackdown on gas-powered vehicles could impact vehicles manufactured for model years 2027 through 2032. That’s just a few years away.
So, what specifically will these crackdowns focus on?
Per Bloomberg, these sweeping changes will focus on governing “tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxide and other pollution from vehicles.”
Biden and his administration have long stated their desire to crack down on gas-powered vehicles, but aside from the above stated concerns from automakers, there’s one more rather large group of people that could be concerned: everyday Americans who drive to work.
There are numerous, documented issues with electric vehicles, ranging from the silly to the downright dangerous.
Even attempting to foist these changes on Americans could have an indelibly negative effect on Biden’s chances at re-election in 2024 — should he run again.
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