Every time we think the Biden administration has hit rock bottom, they find a way to break through to a lower level. In April, Biden’s EPA proposed a set of tailpipe emission standards designed to eliminate consumer choice and destroy the oil and gas industry, starting within the next six years.
In the process, every single person who drives will pay more to purchase and operate their vehicle. It will also put untold numbers of hardworking Americans, including thousands here in Texas, out of work.
This is not responsible governance; it’s using the EPA as a weapon to rig the system and destroy the free market.
“The consumer demand is there,” Biden’s EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in defending the ridiculous standards. “The markets are enabling it.”
If the demand is there, and the markets are supporting a shift to electric cars, then why would Biden need to impose these draconian emission standards in the first place? The answer is that this has nothing to do with free markets or consumer demand. This is, rather, a transparent appeasement of the most radical elements of his rapidly shrinking base. What he has failed to recognize is this: The hardworking people of this country are far more focused on putting food on the table and taking care of their families than placating D.C. special interests.
With each Biden overreach, it’s becoming harder to recognize our own America, the Land of the Free.
Under the proposed plan, the United States will impose the strictest set of tailpipe emissions standards ever put in place beginning with the 2027 models and growing more draconian over the next several years. Meeting those standards would mean that within the next nine years, two out of three new vehicles sold in America must be electrically powered.
This represents a forced transformation of national transportation infrastructure in just a few years, at a scale so radical that the country simply cannot make such a change without extreme hardship. As a country, we are still reeling from workforce challenges, inflation and supply-chain problems.
Texas is certainly not afraid of EVs. As the new home of Tesla, many of the kinds of vehicles Biden’s supporters love are, perhaps ironically, being produced right here in the Lone Star State. The problem is, rather than let the free market do its work, Biden is seizing the wheel and driving us all right off a cliff.
Whether it’s even feasible for America to power all these electric vehicles is the first question that needs an answer. Electricity doesn’t just come from the wall; it has to be generated by utilities and transmitted to homes and businesses, and the increased drain on power grids across the country can create catastrophic results.
Already, California has had to ask residents not to charge their cars during a heat wave, and other parts of the country have warned of rolling blackouts due to the drain on energy supplies — and that’s with only 1% of vehicles running on electricity. It will take untold billions of dollars — meaning higher fees and taxes — to build the infrastructure necessary to generate, transmit and deliver enough power to successfully charge and recharge electric cars when they make up more than two-thirds of new sales.
The dizzying cost of building all that capacity will be passed on to consumers, who will already be clipping coupons to afford their car payment in the first place. At the end of 2022, electric vehicles cost an average of over $17,000 more than conventional cars – which averages out to more than an extra $350 a month based on a four-year loan – and that cost will be borne either by the car buyers or by taxpayers, who will have to continue funding ever-growing subsidies to make buying electric achievable for the average consumer.
Already facing the struggles created by runaway inflation and ongoing economic turmoil due to the government’s inability to balance a budget, Americans could find themselves moving from an economic crisis into a full-blown disaster because of this latest action.
We also need to be realistic about the production of the batteries required for this massive transformation. Battery production is still largely based overseas, meaning this will only make us even more dependent on foreign nations for our power. For example, in 2021, China was home to 75% of lithium-ion battery production compared to 7% in the USA. While Congress is exploring ways to cut into China’s staggering lead, there are legitimate concerns that shortages of much-needed elements would make catching up even more difficult, if not impossible.
Not one single aspect of this plan makes any sense.
The Biden agenda keeps Texans in harm’s way when trying to evacuate the path of a hurricane that won’t allow eight hours for a charge. It makes us dependent on forced and child labor to mine, process and manufacture critical minerals and batteries from China. And, ultimately, it ignores the very real challenges from lack of charging infrastructure to additional training and resources needed for local fire departments when fighting unquenchable EV fires.
Realistic and attainable emissions standards would keep America moving forward while the free market drives the evolution of energy and transportation. We cannot short-circuit that by bowing to the ridiculous whims of a president who has unrealistic visions and thinks that waving a magic wand will change the world overnight.
President Biden should immediately pull the plug, so to speak, on this dangerous plan before more damage is done to markets and the world’s confidence in our nation’s ability to lead.
America runs on freedom, not magical thinking.
Christi Craddick is chair of the Railroad Commission of Texas.
