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THERESA OPEKA
Carolina Journal
Anew commercial aimed at bringing awareness to a new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ruling that will essentially ban gas-powered vehicles will be welcoming President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden to the Tar Heel State as they attend a campaign rally in Raleigh on Friday, fresh off his debate with former President Donald Trump in Atlanta Thursday night.
The ad, which began airing across the state today, is sponsored by American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) and takes aim at the EPA ruling announced in March that would aggressively curb tailpipe emissions.
According to an EPA press release, the “Multi Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 through 2032 and Beyond Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” builds on the EPA’s existing emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2023 through 2026.
They say the standards will avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society, including $13 billion of annual public health benefits due to improved air quality and $62 billion in reduced annual fuel costs, and maintenance and repair costs for drivers, thus accelerating the adoption of cleaner vehicle technologies.
Under the new ruling, 70% of new vehicle sales will be battery-powered electric or hybrids by 2032.
Consumer advocates and energy industry groups say it’s a “de facto electric vehicle mandate.”
“EPA’s final rule gives manufacturers the flexibility to efficiently reduce emissions and meet the performance-based standards through the mix of technologies they decide is best for them and their customers,” the press release stated.
In other words, the EPA is dictating what is best for manufacturers and customers, leaving the latter without the freedom to choose what is best for them and their families.
“EPA’s now-final light-duty vehicle regulation is designed to ban most new gas cars simply because the Biden administration thinks consumers aren’t adopting EVs fast enough,” Chet Thompson, president and CEO of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), said in an emailed statement to Carolina Journal.
“This mandate is bad for consumers and their pocketbooks; it’s bad for our energy and national security, and it will have costly and irresponsible repercussions across the US economy. North Carolinians deserve to know what’s going on so they can urge the President to stop eroding consumer choice and, likewise, push their members of Congress to overturn EPA’s unlawful regulation.”
Most people oppose government regulations that would ban new gasoline, diesel, and hybrid vehicles, including Delaware, Biden’s home state, where a survey showed that 63% of the people who voted in the last two elections are less likely to vote for a candidate who supports such a ban, with only 12% more likely to vote for such a candidate.
Despite the narrative that electric vehicles are more popular than ever, EV sales have slumped in the US, according to Kelley Blue Book.
There are many reasons as to why people aren’t flocking to buy an electric vehicle.
A new report by McKinsey & Company indicated that 46% of EV owners in the US are very likely to switch back to gas-powered vehicles.
Thirty-five percent said charging stations are not yet good enough, 34% voiced their concern about the high total ownership cost, while 32% were worried about frequent charging stops during long-distance trips. Other reasons why EV owners said they wanted to get rid of their cars were the inability to charge the vehicle at home, the stress behind needing to charge the car, the mobility change requirements. and their overall lackluster experience driving an EV.
Other reasons include the extra costs of adding electric charges across states and the increased burden on the electric grid, which will all be passed on to the consumer and safety issues.
EVs have been banned in some shopping malls due to the possibility of lithium batteries in the vehicles exploding as one did in a person’s garage in Boulder, CO, in April.
In a crash, fires from an EV last longer and are harder to put out, leaving firefighters to use much more water, including 45,000 gallons in such a crash, compared to 500-1,000 gallons for a fire in a gas-powered vehicle.
Also, the weight of an EV is much heavier than a gas-powered vehicle, which adds an additional problem in a crash.
Biden isn’t alone in dictating a mandate for electric vehicles.
In January 2022, Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order that aimed to reduce greenhouse gases to net-zero by 2050. Cooper also wants to transition all state vehicles to electric and to enhance goals for drivers to switch to electric and other zero-emission vehicles.
Executive Order No. 246 targets reducing greenhouse gas emissions by increasing the statewide goal to a 50% reduction from 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The order calls for an increase in registered zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) to at least 1,250,000 by 2030 and for 50% of sales of new vehicles in North Carolina to be zero-emission by 2030. It also directs the Department of Transportation to develop a N.C. Clean Transportation Plan for decarbonizing the transportation sector through reductions in vehicle miles traveled, an increase in zero-emission cars, trucks, and buses, and other strategies.
He also signed a similar executive order in October 2022 that mandated increased use of zero-