Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) slammed the Biden administration’s new EPA rules around electric vehicles and tailpipe emissions.
In a statement Tuesday, Manchin blasted the EPA’s radical regulations plan intended to boost EV sales beginning in 2030 and accelerating in 2032. Manchin said the EPA’s ambitious goal of ensuring that 67% of new cars sold will be all-electric was market manipulation and a “Trojan horse” to increase America’s reliance on China for critical minerals. He urged Congress to overturn the rules.
“The EPA is lying to Americans with false claims about how their manipulation of the market to boost EVs will help American energy security,” Manchin said. “In reality, this is a Trojan horse. To meet these timelines will mean strengthening our reliance on minerals and technologies controlled by the Chinese. Taken in concert with the clear violation of the [Inflation Reduction Act] to undermine provisions that would actually secure these supply chains, this Administration is taking steps that will only result in a more energy secure and powerful China. I don’t believe that making progress on climate change should come at the expense of our national and energy security. I fully support Congress overturning these dangerous EPA regulations.”
Earlier this month, the administration rolled out a proposed regulations package meant to drastically increase electric vehicle sales, as The Daily Wire reported. The rules would aim to make sure that EVs make up fully two-thirds of all new cars on the market by 2032. The radical new regulations would represent a quantum leap in EV sales; electric cars made up just 5.8% of all new vehicles sold.
Last week, the administration rolled out new regulations for tailpipe emissions meant to facilitate the transition. The “more stringent” standards released by the agency would induce a 56% decrease in greenhouse gas emissions for light-duty vehicles as well as a 44% decrease for medium-duty vehicles, while similar standards were introduced for heavy-duty vehicles.
The EPA asserted that the proposed standards would decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 10 billion tons over the next three decades and produce as much as $1.6 trillion in value. Skeptics, on the other hand, contend that the move would ignore widespread desires for affordable and reliable conventional vehicles.
Manchin, meanwhile, has become a thorn in the side of the administration’s aggressive environmental policymaking. The critical vote that helped pass the $740 billion Inflation Reduction Act, Manchin has frequently criticized how the Executive Branch is implementing the law. Most recently, he blasted a proposed rule that would loosen regulations on the electric vehicle tax credit.
“Yet again – the guidance released by the Department of the Treasury completely ignores the intent of the Inflation Reduction Act,” Manchin said. “It is horrific that the Administration continues to ignore the purpose of the law which is to bring manufacturing back to America and ensure we have reliable and secure supply chains. American tax dollars should not be used to support manufacturing jobs overseas. It is a pathetic excuse to spend more taxpayer dollars as quickly as possible and further cedes control to the Chinese Communist Party in the process.”
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“The guidance includes a 60-day comment period and I ask for every American to comment,” he added. “My comment is simple: stop this now – just follow the law.”
