Remember when President Barack Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), mandated that every American have health insurance? Now President Joe Biden is proposing his own mandate, but through the back door, essentially forcing you to buy an electric vehicle.
The New York Times explains: “The Biden administration is planning some of the most stringent auto pollution limits in the world, designed to ensure that all-electric cars make up as much as 67 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the country by 2032.”
As is so often the case these days, Biden doesn’t plan to pass legislation through the people’s elected representatives in Congress, which is what one who really believes in democracy would do. Biden plans to impose his will through regulations.
The NYT continues: “It would be the federal government’s most aggressive climate regulation and would propel the United States to the front of the global effort to slash the greenhouse gases generated by cars, a major driver of climate change.” (Emphasis added.)
It would also “propel” the United States closer to being one of the many autocratic countries mostly governed by presidential decrees. At least Obama passed his health insurance mandate through Congress, though Democrats had to contort the legislative process to do it.
Biden’s approach is to use the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to propose stricter limits on tailpipe emissions, limits so stringent that it would be hard for automakers to comply. Those changes would force automakers to transition even faster to making mostly all-electric vehicles.
Apparently, bribing the auto manufacturers with hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars isn’t moving them fast enough.
But achieving Biden’s goal will be difficult. Obtaining needed rare earth minerals and addressing supply chain challenges will hamper production increases. And the elevated price of EVs will also be a burden for lower-income families.
And, importantly, the electric grid doesn’t currently have the capacity to meet the increased electricity demand, nor are there sufficient charging stations for those traveling long distances.
Maybe all of those problems will be resolved within his proposed 10-year window. But Biden, or any subsequent Democratic president, will have to throw even more taxpayer dollars at the effort. And as we’ve seen, he’s certainly willing to do that.
But there is one more problem: consumer demand. Americans have been very slow to transition to EVs. And those who have are mostly higher-income individuals who can afford a Tesla.
Of course, it’s perfectly all right if consumers choose electric cars and trucks, as long as that’s what they, not the government, want.
The good news is that Biden’s tailpipe regulations will be challenged in court, and the effort may die there. Or a future Republican president may repeal Biden’s overreach.
The best way for Biden to ensure that doesn’t happen is for Congress to vote on and pass his new regulations. But then that would be following the democratic process that Biden so often claims he wants to protect.
April 11, 2023