Biden administration finalizes rule expected to require significant shift to EVs

The Biden administration on Wednesday finalized rules that are expected to make a significant portion of the new car market electric or hybrid.

According to the rules, 56% of new cars on the market in 2032 could be battery electric vehicles, and a further 13% could be plug-in hybrids. In this scenario, only 29 percent would be gasoline vehicles, and another 3 percent would be other hybrid vehicles.

only 16 percent Last year, a large proportion of new car sales were electric and hybrid vehicles.

The rule is the cornerstone of the Biden administration’s climate change efforts.Cars and other light vehicles currently regulated accounts for about 17% Share of US global warming emissions. This rule also regulates medium-duty vehicles, including vans and pickup trucks.

But the regulation is expected to be highly contentious, with a version proposed last year drawing backlash from Republicans and the industry, as well as the autoworkers union.

In response to criticism, the administration made some changes to the rules covering vehicle models from 2027 to 2032, creating stricter requirements for some of the earlier rules and slowing the transition to EVs. .

For example, under the proposed rules, 55% of vehicles would be electric and 45% gasoline-powered for the 2029 model year, but under the new rules gasoline-powered vehicles would account for 49% of sales in that year. become. .

In a written statement regarding the rule, President Biden reiterated his commitment to hiring autoworkers.

“Today, we are setting new pollution standards for cars and trucks. American workers are leading the world in the automotive sector, building clean cars and trucks with the ‘Made in America’ stamp. It will lead,” he said. You have my word. ”

Although the autoworkers union supports Biden, the statement, which emphasizes workers, was made amid criticism from the Trump campaign that the Trump administration’s EV policy will have a negative impact on autoworkers.

Overall, the rule is expected to prevent 7.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2055, nearly four times the emissions of the entire U.S. transportation sector in 2021.

By 2055, reduced pollution is expected to prevent up to 2,500 premature deaths and reduce the number of heart attacks.

Republicans vowed to immediately seek to repeal the rule and said they would try to hold a vote to overturn it.

“This rule is a delusion. This is the Biden administration’s attempt to phase out the internal combustion engine without Congressional authority. Together, we will introduce the Congressional Review Act to overturn Mr. Biden’s EV mandate. ” said a joint written statement from Sens. Pete Ricketts (R-Nebraska) and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska).

Their efforts are unlikely to succeed because such action would require presidential approval or a two-thirds majority in Congress.

And the oil industry lobby is threatening to sue over the rule.

“Whether Republican or Democrat, will Congress protect consumer choice, America’s manufacturing workers, and our hard-won energy security by overturning this deeply flawed regulation? “Otherwise, our organization is certainly prepared to challenge it in court,” said Chet Thompson, chief executive officer of American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers. (CEO) and Mike Somers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API), said in a joint statement.

But the auto industry lobby praised the short-term deregulation, saying it gave automakers time to adjust.

“A slower pace of EV adoption in 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030 will prioritize more reasonable electrification targets in the next few (very important) years of the EV transition. It was the right decision,” said John Bozella, Alliance President and CEO. For automotive innovation.

This rule from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not technically a mandate for electric vehicles or any particular vehicle technology.

Instead, it sets pollution limits for automakers’ fleets, standards that are so stringent that they are unlikely to be met by retrofitting gasoline cars alone, meaning the market will shift to electric and other low-carbon vehicles. It is expected that this will happen.

Officials said the estimates the EPA provided in last year’s rule covered only electric vehicles and did not model hybrid vehicles.

This rule is actually based on limits on average greenhouse gas emissions. In the short term, these limits would be higher than the proposal, allowing up to 112 grams of carbon dioxide per mile in 2029, as opposed to 99 grams per mile in the more stringent proposal. The rule sets similar limits for the program’s final year in 2032, when the administration’s previous estimates suggested two-thirds of new car sales could be electric.

Updated at 1:44 p.m.