WASHINGTON, D.C. – The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden is reportedly in the process of walking back the incredibly aggressive rules they were set to put in place in an effort to curtail tailpipe emissions and encourage consumers to transition their modes of transportation to electric vehicles (EVs).
Automotive manufacturers and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union had both been pressuring the Biden admin to ease up on their efforts to push adoption of EVs among the general population, saying that the technology has not advanced to the point it needs to be at yet for reliable mass use, the lack of national charging infrastructure, and the expensive price of the vehicles themselves putting them outside the budget of many mainstream consumers.
In April 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had issued a proposal that would have required new vehicle emissions to be reduced by 56 percent by 2032. The proposal also would have required automakers to ramp up their EV production to 60 percent of all new output by the year 2030 – and 67 percent by 2032 – in order to adhere to the more stringent emissions standards.
However, it would appear that the Biden admin has taken note of the concerns of auto manufacturers, the UAW, and consumers, and it is now expected that the EPA has amended their proposal to slow the pace of emissions requirements throughout 2030, which will now lower the required number of EVs manufactured to under the 60 percent threshold.
The UAW had previously said that the EPA’s proposal should be changed so that new standards are implemented more gradually and over a greater period of time. In addition, the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI), a trade group that represents major auto manufacturers such as General Motors, Ford Motors, Stellantis, Toyota, and more, called the initial EPA proposal in 2023 “neither reasonable nor achievable.”
The AAI instead countered that the proposal should instead adopt “requirements for 40 to 50 percent [of EVs manufactured] in 2030,” noting that EVs only made up of approximately 8 percent of all vehicle sales in 2023.
Christopher Boyle is an investigative journalist, videographer, reporter and writer for SEARCHEN NETWORKS® as well as other independent news and media organizations in the United States. Christopher works on a wide variety of topics and fields, has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, from local to national, and helps keep a keen-eye on what’s happening in the automotive world for Auto Buyers Market.