WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Friday approved a resolution that would roll back a new Biden administration rule on auto emissions that Republicans say would force Americans to buy unaffordable electric vehicles they don’t want.
The regulations, issued by the Environmental Protection Agency in March, would impose the most ambitious standards ever in the United States to reduce passenger car emissions that cause global warming.
These measures come after sales of electric cars, which are needed to meet the standards, declined.
While former President Donald Trump and other Republicans criticized the rule as an EV “mandate,” the rule would not force all EV sales. Under the regulations, the industry would be able to meet the limits if 56% of new vehicle sales were electric by 2032, the EPA said. The standard would also require that at least 13% of new vehicles by 2032 be plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, as well as more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles per gallon than cars currently on the road.
The expected sales figures for electric cars would be a huge increase from current sales figures, which rose to 7.6% of new vehicles last year, compared to 5.8% in 2022.
“The EPA’s latest regulations on tailpipe emissions aren’t really about reducing air pollution. They’re about forcing Americans to drive electric vehicles,” said Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Washington, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
She called the rule “unreasonable” and “just another example of how the Biden-Harris administration’s hasty greening of the economy hands China the keys to America’s energy future, endangers our auto industry and forces people to buy unaffordable electric vehicles they don’t want.”
New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the energy panel, called the House measure “yet another attempt by Republicans to attack the Clean Air Act and roll back common protections against air pollution.”
The GOP action “puts the profits of polluting corporations above the health and safety of the American people,” Pallone said, adding that the resolution was “plucked straight out of Trump’s extreme Project 2025 playbook.”
Instead of focusing on funding the government, which is set to shut down at the end of the month, “Republicans are wasting time by bringing up this resolution that they know has no chance of becoming law,” Pallone said, noting that even if the measure passes the Democratic-controlled Senate, it would be vetoed by President Joe Biden.
“This is yet another example of Republicans failing to govern seriously and work to implement policies that actually benefit the American people,” Pallone said.
The House of Representatives passed the measure 215-191, with eight Democrats voting in favor and one Republican, Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voting against.
Republican Rep. John James of Michigan, who sponsored the resolution, said the “unrealistic regulations” would “devastate Michigan’s auto industry and decimate our middle class and most vulnerable citizens.”
“People in my district simply can’t afford to spend an extra $12,000 on an expensive, unreliable EV,” James said. “If the Biden-Harris administration continues to suppress consumer choice, it will only hurt the American people.”
The EPA rule, which applies to model years 2027 through 2032, would avoid more than 7 billion metric tons of warming carbon emissions over the next three decades. This would result in nearly $100 billion in net benefits annually, including lower health care costs, fewer deaths and more than $60 billion in reduced annual fuel, maintenance and repair costs, the EPA said.
Cars and trucks are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US.
The new standards are designed to be technology-neutral and performance-based, said EPA Administrator Michael Regan, who noted that there are “multiple paths companies can choose to comply” with the rule. The EPA could meet its carbon pollution goals even if battery electric vehicle sales fall as low as 30% by 2032, as long as the strict standards for gas-powered cars are met, he said.
Biden, who has made combating climate change a hallmark of his presidency, cited “historic progress” in his pledge that half of all new cars and trucks sold in the U.S. will be zero-emission by 2030.
“We will achieve my 2030 goal and move forward rapidly in the years ahead,” Biden said when the rule was issued in March.
