Biden’s New Emissions Control Standards Prove EVs are a Tough Sell

From Heartland Daily News

By Mandy Gunasekara

The Biden administration released new emissions control standards for vehicles. Billed as the “most ambitious climate regulations” ever, they have captured headlines, but technical realities and high costs have both rules headed straight for a brick wall.

The light-duty category covers cars, trucks, and vans, and requires 67% of all new car sales to be electric by 2032. The heavy-duty category covers 18-wheelers, buses, and other work-related vehicles and requires half of new buses and a quarter of new truck sales to be electric by 2032. For comparison, last year, electric vehicle sales made up 5.8% of new car sales and less than 2% for heavier trucks. These proposed standards are not ambitious but rather represent a new level of regulatory lunacy.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) requires the EPA administrator to set vehicle regulations aimed at reducing pollutants from light-duty vehicles that negatively impact public health and the environment. In setting these standards, the administrator must take into consideration the feasibility of new technologies as well as costs. Team Biden promised as much when they committed to establishing a “data-driven” goal. But it’s hard to see how any serious expert would support the notion that, in less than five years, when car companies will begin designing the model year 2032 vehicles, they can develop enough electric vehicles, procure the massive amount of critical minerals needed for the batteries, and convince skeptical consumers to massively shift their purchasing priorities to meet this goal.

Despite numerous federally sponsored incentives, electric vehicle adoption rates remain low for a variety of reasons. Even with major advancements in EV technology, recharging batteries still takes hours, while filling up gas tanks takes minutes. Coupled with a limited network of charging stations, EVs continue to be a hard sell. Even the majority of current EV owners still rely on gas-powered vehicles—78% own a second gas-powered car to supplement their transportation needs.

Future demand isn’t there either. A new AP-NORC poll found only 19% of Americans are “very likely or extremely likely” to go electric. Gallup similarly poured water on the enthusiasm claim, suggesting Americans are “slow to adopt electric vehicles.” More troubling for EV backers: Even if this push was possible, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasted just 9% of U.S. vehicles would be electric by 2050.

The administration displays tone deafness by touting expensive alternatives to reliable gas-powered cars. Many Americans are struggling to afford eggs and meat in the inflationary economy. It’s highly unlikely lower and middle-income folks are planning to purchase a car with an average cost of $54,000. The availability of taxpayer subsidies doesn’t change that equation. To date, most EV drivers are in households that make at least $150,000 per year or more. In states like Mississippi, where the median income is around $50,000, EVs are cost-prohibitive and regulations like the proposed Biden standards will only make those costs go up.

One of the nation’s leading auto manufacturing groups called the proposal “aggressive” and “unprecedented” even for them—suggesting the administration is going too far too fast. Their statements should be heavily considered given the industry has already invested billions to expand vehicle electrification. Although the industry has adopted the transition narrative, they are rightfully concerned with the expedited timeline and unrealistic expectations in the current proposal.

Despite serious technical hurdles and overwhelming preference by consumers for gas-powered vehicles, Team Biden seems done with the carrot approach and is using a regulatory stick to force its all-EV future on Americans. The courts may once again be the saving grace.

Critics have an opportunity to present legal arguments against the EPA. The biggest legal elephant in the room is the West Virginia v. EPA decision that invoked the “major questions” doctrine. Specifically, the Supreme Court made clear that agencies must point to “clear Congressional authorization” if they take actions of “vast economic or political significance.” One can argue in this instance that the EPA does not have the ability to restructure the entire transportation industry in the same way the agency did not have the ability to redesign entire energy markets in the West Virginia case.

The current rules, as proposed, have numerous technical and legal vulnerabilities. They also stand to undermine environmental progress as Americans will undoubtedly settle on driving older cars longer instead of amassing serious debt to acquire a new, less reliable car. As a result, the reach of new technologies and the affiliated benefits such as reduced pollution and safer roads will fail to materialize.

Mandy Gunasekara is the director of Independent Women’s Forum’s Center for Energy and Conservation and previously served as Chief-of-Staff at the U.S. EPA. Follow her on Twitter at @MississippiMG

Originally published by RealClearEnergy. Republished with permission.

To read more about new emissions standards, click here.

To read more about Biden’s EV push, click here.

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jlgh
May 16, 2023 10:12 am

I am an EV fan, but I do wish these silly legislators would just let the market take its natural course.

I’d expect the US to take up electric vehicles more slowly because you are such a big country. In the UK in December 2022 rechargeable cars (plug in hybrids and pure BEVs) were 39%: in Norway in the same month it was over 80%

James Snook
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 10:31 am

If the market took its natural course EVs would be dead in the water, but once Governments start to engineer markets the law of unintended consequences rapidly rears its head.

Biden’s misnamed Inflation Reduction Act provides for a huge $7,500 tax break on EVs made in the USA but has left a gaping loophole in that, if the vehicle is leased, the tax break can effectively be claimed on imported EVs. According to CNN these are already gaining market share.

Right-Handed Shark
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 10:50 am

I think you’ll find that there were 39% more EV’s sold than the previous year, that figure is not total market share. Will you still be a fan when you try to sell your EV in a few years time when the battery performance is degraded, range is significantly less and won’t hold a charge for anywhere near as long as when it was new? Second hand values are dropping faster for EV’s than any other type of vehicle:

https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/used-electric-car-prices-caught-in-vicious-downward-cycle-as-experts-warn-of-more-trouble-ahead/279724

RobK
Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
May 16, 2023 11:33 am

Similarly:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/electric-car-price-fall-second-hand-tesla-bmw/

“The study said that electric car prices had fallen so fast they had effectively wiped out any savings drivers would have made when receiving up-front government grants. Other incentives to switch to electric cars such as lower tax and free entry into ultra-low emissions zones have also been discontinued.“

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  RobK
May 17, 2023 4:21 am

The wealthy don’t care if their EV value drops- they get their virtue signaling.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Right-Handed Shark
May 17, 2023 4:32 am

“Second hand values are dropping faster for EV’s than any other type of vehicle”

I think this is going to be a big problem for the EV market.

Buying a used EV is a lot different than buying a new one, and people are realizing there are large pitfalls in doing so, like having to buy a whole new battery pack for the car at a cost of many thousands of dollars.

Simon
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 4:45 pm

like having to buy a whole new battery pack for the car at a cost of many thousands of dollars.”
I think you will find that is going to be less and less of a problem going forward.

Tony_G
Reply to  Simon
May 17, 2023 5:06 pm

I think you will find that is going to be less and less of a problem

Is that based on existing technology and production, or developments in those that you are expecting to happen?

ATheoK
Reply to  Simon
May 18, 2023 7:15 am

I think you will find that is going to be less and less of a problem going forward.”

Is that an ‘official’ simon prediction?

More simon delusions pushed as nebulous climate fantasies…

Redge
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 11:34 am

Not a cat in hells chance that EVs are 39% of new sales in the UK

You should check your homework

jlgh
Reply to  Redge
May 16, 2023 11:40 am
Redge
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 12:18 pm

Not according to this

Overall, 1.61 million new cars were registered in 2022 – a figure that’s 2.0% down on 2021 due to the impact of the pandemic and the continued global semiconductor chip shortage.

Despite this, more battery electric vehicles (BEV) were sold in 2022 than ever with 267,203 registrations (16.6% of all new car sales), while plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) made up 6.3% or 101,414 cars. 

Writing Observer
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 12:30 pm

You didn’t read down, did you? That is only the DECEMBER number. Although for the year, it was 22.8% market share (for NEW vehicles).

Still too many for your decrepit grid.

Right-Handed Shark
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 12:47 pm

From YOUR link:

New plug-in car registrations, year-to-date in 2022:

BEVs: 267,203 (up 40% year-over-year) at a market share of 16.6%PHEVs: 101,414 (down 11% year-over-year) at a market share of 6.3%Total: 368,617 (up 21% year-over-year) at a market share of 22.8%Some people only see what they want to see.

ResourceGuy
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 12:13 pm

We have a lot more to lose in new policy train wrecks. We can’t all be small, compact oil states (Norway) or money changer service economies like the UK.

RickWill
Reply to  ResourceGuy
May 16, 2023 3:04 pm

We can’t all be small, compact oil states (Norway) or money changer service economies like the UK.

USA is the global banker and creator of the global currency, which suits China’s ambition to take over global manufacturing. Get USA hooked on Chinese manufacturing then shift the CNY to the global currency and USA is caput. China will no longer hold US debt for the stuff they make. USA will be left with the current generation wind turbines, solar panels, batteries and BEVs with no way to replace them.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  RickWill
May 17, 2023 4:37 am

“Get USA hooked on Chinese manufacturing then shift the CNY to the global currency and USA is caput.”

I think that depends on who you trust less. Rational people will go with a more trustworthy partner. I believe the United States would be the choice in this case.

HotScot
Reply to  jlgh
May 16, 2023 3:20 pm

I’m an EV fan also, assuming the market and not government legislation is the predominant factor in their uptake.

Let people decide. If you live in a congested city, maybe they do make sense, but so does public transport.

You therefore have a choice.

How about I persuade government to mandate 1960’s emissions compliant (there was no emission compliance in the 60’s) vehicles on you? How would you feel? EV’s don’t suit me so what gives anyone the right to force them on me?

EV’s are clean you say? The first ‘car’ was an electric car, the technology died because it performed little better then than it does now.

85% of the worlds energy comes from fossil fuels, so how can an electric car possibly be ‘green’?

UK sales of EV’s has fallen dramatically over the last year or so as the high end market becomes saturated and the cost of living crisis bites even further.

It’s anticipate that China is about to flood the European market with EV’s over the coming few years, to the detriment of European manufacturers.

Well done. By supporting mass government mandated uptake of EV’s you throw tens of thousands of British car workers, and their support businesses, into mass unemployment.

The battery manufacturing factories are already failing before they have begun and were they to survive they would face dwindling supplies of rare earth materials and spiralling cost’s for them.

Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s politically simplistic and practically childish Inflation Reduction Act is sucking the life out of European manufacturing with taxpayer giveaways. So, impoverish Europe with the mighty dollar. That won’t end well.

But EV’s will get cheaper is the green refrain, oblivious of the realities of life.

Do you really still believe this is about the environment?

Grow up, this is a lunge by western governments, headed by Biden’s ‘Big America’ to globalise the world, with only Biden’s America at the top table.

Guess what? Russia, China and the rest of the BRICS nations don’t like the idea of America running the global show.

You are witnessing the rise of the Fourth Reich, in Biden’s America.

The German Right wing thought they could vote their way out the Third Reich……..

Tom Abbott
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 4:46 am

“I’m an EV fan also”

Why, considering all the problems mass electrification would cause to society? A few electric cars is ok. Mass electrification of the transportation sector is madness, given current technology and (un)availablity of raw materials, and an electric grid that is on the verge of blackouts.

My uncle, an engineer, built his own electric car back in the 1950’s, using lead-acid batteries. It was a novelty. In the same way electric cars are today.

Forcing electic cars down the throats of the public is Democrat/Socialist insanity, and should be resisted. Buy ICE vehicles!

If you are hung up on a battery-powered car, get a hybrid that doesn’t have to be plugged in. The best of both worlds.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  jlgh
May 17, 2023 4:28 am

“I am an EV fan, but I do wish these silly legislators would just let the market take its natural course.”

That is a foreign concept to Democrats/Socialists. They want to be in charge of every little move we make.

ATheoK
Reply to  jlgh
May 18, 2023 7:29 am

In the UK in December 2022 rechargeable cars (plug in hybrids and pure BEVs) were 39%: “

2022 (January to December): New passenger vehicle registrations in the United Kingdom were 2% lower than in 2021 for the smallest British new car market since 1992. The sale of battery-electric vehicles increased by 40% to a new record market share of 16.6% while fewer than one in ten new cars were fueled by diesel.”

Statistics by government or marketing agencies are untrustworthy.
An increase of 39% (40% rounded up) is not an overall sale metric. It is simply a measurement of the same item compared to the same item over a time span.

Most of the acronym speak regarding electric vehicles ignores that EVs frequently include the specifications for other acronyms: MHEV, PHEV, BHEV, HEV, plus hybrid (ICE engine) variations for these vehicles are counted as individual units for each category they qualify.

Coeur de Lion
May 16, 2023 10:15 am

I don’t know about America but in UK much/ most of local economics depends on small van owners buzzing about. If they are to pay over 35 grand for a van which will need much charging down time then I guess we will all suffer. And global temperature in 2100 will be much the same, ie harmless. Madness

KevinM
Reply to  Coeur de Lion
May 16, 2023 10:33 am

America (USA) depends on giant tractor-trailers buzzing about.

Writing Observer
Reply to  KevinM
May 16, 2023 12:45 pm

For DC (distribution center) to DC, or for port to DC. In cities, you see quite a few – but one truck will hit four or five supermarkets. (Refrigerated trucks about the same.)

You see quite a few four wheel trucks, too, for deliveries of items like beer, soda, flowers, etc. They’ll only hit two or three stores before returning to the warehouse.

Simply more efficient, the way that the majority of our roads and streets are laid out for easy travel, and the prevalence of large supermarkets and big box stores. European cities are nothing like that.

HotScot
Reply to  Writing Observer
May 16, 2023 4:09 pm

and the prevalence of large supermarkets and big box stores. European cities are nothing like that.

Which reminds me, I must toddle off to my corner supermarket and big box store in the UK to get all my white goods/groceries/cars/clothing etc.

An attitude that exposed America as an ignorant, isolationist, narcissistic environment.

We Brits (many Scot’s actually) invented the TV, Telephone and the bl00dy internet language (HTML) you’re so familiar with. We also invented, amongst many other things, the tarmac on your roads and the tyres your car runs on, on those roads.

We also invented the English language you use or, more correctly, misuse!

Big Box stores my ass. Get out your country and travel more.

Colin
Reply to  HotScot
May 16, 2023 8:57 pm

Better check your facts. Brits DID NOT invent the telephone – Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. And the Brits did not “invent: the English language. How many German and French and other words were amalgamated into “English” or OLDE ENGLISH. Try and speak OLDE ENGLISH and see how many people understand that

Bill Toland
Reply to  Colin
May 17, 2023 12:25 am

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Bill Toland
May 17, 2023 4:53 am

I think HotScot was referring mainly to Scotland.

Scotland has many brilliant scientists in its history. A record to be proud of.

MarkW
Reply to  Bill Toland
May 17, 2023 11:55 am

However he felt compelled to leave the land of his birth.

Writing Observer
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 5:06 pm

Sigh… I was NOT insulting your living style. Unlike yourself, insulting my entire country.

Merely pointing out that different situations need different solutions.

In fact, I much preferred living in rural New Hampshire, which is much the same.

(Good thing that I am only about a quarter Scottish myself; otherwise, the fire extinguishers would need to come out.)

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  KevinM
May 16, 2023 1:37 pm

And depends on massive trainloads of shipping containers and truck traders hauled by diesel-electric locomotives for longer trips.

ResourceGuy
Reply to  Coeur de Lion
May 16, 2023 12:17 pm

A policy train wreck centered on trucking in the U.S. will look like a national UPS labor strike or a debt ceiling crisis today. It does not take long to notice the effects.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  ResourceGuy
May 17, 2023 4:58 am

One good thing is places like California are leading the way off this EV cliff, so when they crash and burn, the rest of us will see it, and avoid doing the same stupid things California did.

Mr.
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 12:39 pm

so when they crash and burn, the rest of us will see it, and avoid doing the same stupid things California did

Don’t be so sure.

The world has watched Germany struggle to transition to ‘renewable’ generation of utility-scale “green” electricity for ~ 40 years now, and by any measure, it’s an epic failure.

And yet, most “enlightened” G20 countries are performing admirable impersonations of lemmings as they all trash their proven, low-impact fossil fueled electricity systems in their looney quests to get a participation certificate from the UN / WEF for “Net Zero” recognition.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Mr.
May 18, 2023 3:41 am

Well, put. So true. 🙂

Yirgach
Reply to  ResourceGuy
May 17, 2023 11:02 am

The courts may once again be the saving grace.

Lord knows the ballot box has been broken and still isn’t fixed.
Waiting for the secession of states to start…

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  Coeur de Lion
May 17, 2023 4:35 am

“And global temperature in 2100 will be much the same, ie harmless.”

Actually, way too cold and miserable, as always, in place like New England. In 2100 people here will be screaming “where’s the warmer temperatures that we all want?”.

Oldseadog
May 16, 2023 10:22 am

” …… regulations aimed at reducing pollutants from light duty vehicles ….. ”

What about the pollutants from the manufacturing process when these vehicles are built?

KevinM
Reply to  Oldseadog
May 16, 2023 10:35 am

Not built in USA, so not USA’s problem.

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  KevinM
May 16, 2023 1:39 pm

Not built in the USA, so concealed from deluded eco-activist voters who think they’re “saving us” from an imaginary “climate catastrophe.”

William Howard
Reply to  Oldseadog
May 16, 2023 11:13 am

not to mention china & India building coal plants every week which will more than offset anything the US & Europe do – CO2 is not a pollutant, it is part of the cycle of life which we need to survive – this is all a giant hoax more interested in destroying the economies of the West than saving the environment – which Brandon is all to happy to accommodate – the only winner in this scheme is China, Brandon’s paymaster

Tom Abbott
Reply to  William Howard
May 17, 2023 5:00 am

“not to mention china & India building coal plants every week which will more than offset anything the US & Europe do”

The elephant in the room that the climate alarmist don’t seem to see.

Our leaders are living in La La Land.

scadsobees
Reply to  Oldseadog
May 16, 2023 11:51 am

It’s not about reducing pollution. It’s all about signalling one’s perceived or imaginary virtue.

If you signal your virtue, it’s less likely people will see your bribe taking or other illegal activity.

JamesB_684
Reply to  Oldseadog
May 16, 2023 3:32 pm

EVs require far more mining to obtain the materials for manufacturing them. Mining done (largely) with big diesel fueled equipment, or done by virtual slave and child labor (i.e. cobalt for the batteries).
All that mining generates pollution and dust particulate.

Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 10:27 am

Is something physically cannot happen, then it won’t. These new regulations are in the physically impossible category. Not enough lithium, not enough cobalt, not enough grid. So eventually will be rescinded.

KevinM
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 10:37 am

The trick will be timing “eventually” with “need a car”. Auto mechanics and the used market win.

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 10:41 am

Will they be rescinded in time to stop China from completing it’s world domination strategy?

It may already be too late. Four years of rebuilding our economy and our military was not enough. If we have 6 more years of this China may be unstoppable.

HotScot
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 16, 2023 3:53 pm

Will they be rescinded in time to stop China from completing it’s world domination strategy?

Think about this a bit more deeply.

How would China achieve global domination?

By armed conflict, with principally a navy of coastguards? They don’t have a navy like NATO.

Possibly by commerce and trade, but isn’t that what America does best?

The fact is China has an unemployment problem that threatens to overturn its government. They are no different from the west when it comes to putting food on the table.

The west is China’s principle customer, we are the ultimate consumers. Why would China want to kill it’s principle market?

Would they overrun us all and turn us all communists? There goes your market for employment again. Rolls Royce allegedly exports more cars to China than it does to any other country (they refuse to release the numbers).

Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act is more isolationist than anything Trump ever conceived. It’s designed to impoverish Europe to the benefit of America.

Great, expose an impoverished Europe to the tyranny of another deranged leader, engulf the American Military Industrial Complex in that conflict again, and we have another Marshall Plan for America to profit from.

The Marshall Plan proposed the reduction of interstate barriers and the economic integration of the European Continent……. (wikipedia)

So the plan of unrestricted immigration was introduced in the mid 1940’s, experimented with in Europe, and enacted on the souther border of America because its limited social disruption in Europe promised a hypothetically, harmonious future for a sort of mid brown but socially destructive mixed community in the US.

This isn’t rocket science FFS. It’s American driven globalism.

China doesn’t want it, Russia doesn’t want it, nor do any of the remaining BRICS countries want it.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 4:45 am

“It’s American driven globalism.”

America is the latest version of the Roman Empire.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 5:17 am

“This isn’t rocket science FFS. It’s American driven globalism.”

A conspiracy theory.

Who is pulling all these strings?

Mr.
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 12:44 pm

Good post HotScot.

The west is China’s principle customer

But I certainly hope that the West is not relying on China for its principles. 🙂

George T
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 10:42 am

Well said. I wonder why this is obvious to those of us who have a brain, think rationally, logical in our analysis and reasoned? Personally, I have no use whatsoever for a BEV. It’s frustrating enough when I have pay for another battery for my drill. The thought of having to replace a BEV battery would make me see red.

Writing Observer
Reply to  George T
May 16, 2023 12:48 pm

Why I only buy power tools with a plug. (I have about 500 feet of extension cords sitting in my shop. Never have to buy a new battery, except for flashlights, and occasionally for the laser on tools.)

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Writing Observer
May 17, 2023 5:20 am

“I have about 500 feet of extension cords sitting in my shop.”

I do, too!

I acquired that before battery operated tools became available. I have them all wrapped up on a big hose reel.

I do use battery-operated hand tools. They are *very* handy. 🙂

Writing Observer
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 5:08 pm

Until they’re not. They don’t even make good hammers…

karlomonte
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 10:48 am

The entire EPA needs to be rescinded.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  karlomonte
May 17, 2023 5:22 am

Yes, the EPA is out of control. Of course, that direction comes from the White House, which is also out of control. We need to rescind the Trafficer-in-Chief, Joe Biden.

Yirgach
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 11:06 am

The end of use date for “Joe Biden” has already expired, but “Joe Biden” isn’t aware of that.

William Howard
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 11:10 am

USSC will knock it down before then

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  William Howard
May 16, 2023 11:33 am

We can hope, but don’t count on it.

SCOTUS just upheld California’s law that required other states to meet strict requirements regarding how the livestock sold as meat in CA must be raised. States can’t force other states to do this, but SCOTUS upheld it.

SCOTUS also upheld ObamaCare and ruled that the state of Oklahoma can’t enforce laws on former tribal lands.

Rud Istvan
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 16, 2023 12:45 pm

The upheld CA ‘animal welfare’ law was on birthing pen size for pregnant sows. The easy solution is not to ship ordinary pork and bacon to California from out of state. Or, dedicate out of state facilities to CA only pork. Let CA deal with the consequences of its new law on pork shortages/higher prices.
SCOTUS was correct not to interfere in a purely CA matter because the out of state producers have solutions as above. 10A.

mikelowe2013
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 16, 2023 12:53 pm

Looking forward to a new POTUS? Maybe Trump will again demonstrate his practical grasp of facts! As he did with Ivermectin!

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  mikelowe2013
May 16, 2023 1:49 pm

Which works just great when the protocol is followed.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 17, 2023 4:48 am

“States can’t force other states to do this”

American conservatives believe in “states’ rights”- nice in theory but not always a good idea.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 17, 2023 5:30 am

“SCOTUS also upheld ObamaCare and ruled that the state of Oklahoma can’t enforce laws on former tribal lands.”

Upholding Obamacare was a travesty of justice. We can thank Chief Justice John Roberts for that one.

The Oklahoma ruling has led to some unusual activites with regard to law enforcement in Oklahoma. Now, if a crime is committed by a Native American, the local law authorities do not investigate the case, instead the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) does the investigation.

We have FBI agents running all over Oklahoma investigating crimes of all kinds! 🙂

The changes haven’t affected the way I live my life, so, so far, so good.

Native Americans are a real asset to Oklahoma. They are thriving, and doing so well that they regularly donate money to causes that not only help Native Americans but help everyone.

I’m a big fan of Native American government. They do a pretty good job.

karlomonte
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 8:44 am

And don’t forget Crazy John McCain’s infamous, theatrical thumbs-down when he had the one vote in the U.S. Senate that would have undone the whole mess that is Obamacare.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  karlomonte
May 18, 2023 3:58 am

Thanks for the reminder.

Yes, John McCain was the deciding vote.

McCain turned out to be a big disappointment. I’ll leave it at that.

MarkW
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 17, 2023 12:01 pm

That really sounds like trying to regulate interstate trade, which supposedly only congress can do.

Frank from NoVA
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 11:21 am

Physically impossible, most likely, but this is a political problem. As for those hoping for judicial relief, I would advise that’s a very slender reed to rely upon. Constitution case law has devolved a long ways from any semblance of original intent let alone the plain meaning of government limits like the 10th amendment.

Bob Rogers
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 11:37 am

Sure it can happen. Just instead of selling 3 million cars a year we’ll sell 300,000. They’ll be way more expensive, and the rest of us will struggle to keep our old cars on the road indefinitely.

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  Bob Rogers
May 16, 2023 12:46 pm

Oh, like Cuba!

mikelowe2013
Reply to  Bob Rogers
May 16, 2023 12:55 pm

Demonstrating that the oil companies correctly deduced the long-term future and expect to remain in business.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  Bob Rogers
May 17, 2023 4:50 am

or get a horse 🙂

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 11:39 am

Cannot happen? Is there a law that prevents physically impossible regulations from taking effect? When are the laws of physics and chemistry a limit on what regulators can require?

Sure, it a sensible world, physically impossible would be a deal-breaker. But this is the US government.

Dave Fair
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 11:52 am

Eventually, Rud, but at what cost and lifestyle reduction?

Rud Istvan
Reply to  Dave Fair
May 16, 2023 2:20 pm

Just my personal view, but not a lot of cost and lifestyle reduction. The American public won’t stand for it. Biden will be gone (2024) and these virtue signaling regulations reversed by 47 long before they actually bite. But for the 2024 election, they provide a useful compare and contrast.

HotScot
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 3:58 pm

Biden will be gone (2024)

No guarantee of that. Even from the UK I see that the US electoral system was distorted in 2020.

It happens though, and Republicans are no better. But the left seem to have gotten very good at it.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 5:39 am

“Republicans are no better”

No, Republicans *are* better. MUCH better.

MarkW
Reply to  Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 12:08 pm

That’s a pretty low standard. Not being as bad as the Democrats.

For many years, the Republican leadership followed the rule that the best place for them was just a little bit to the right of wherever the Democrats were politically.
The theory was that anyone to the right of the Democrats would have no choice but to vote for the Republicans.
As a result every time the Democrats lurched further to the left, the Republicans followed them.
There are a still a lot of Republicans who follow this strategy.
For them all that matters is political power. Doing something with that power (other than enriching themselves) isn’t important.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  MarkW
May 18, 2023 4:00 am

“That’s a pretty low standard. Not being as bad as the Democrats.”

It’s better than nothing.

Would you vote Democrat in the current situation we find ourselves in?

I can’t imagine doing so.

MarkW
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 17, 2023 12:06 pm

That depends on who wins in 2024. If Biden loses in the primaries and the winner is another Democrat, nothing will change. Things will continue to get worse.
If it’s one of the middle of the road Republicans, then maybe a few of the most egregious of the regulations will get canned, but most will survive.

Newt Gingrich once called Bod Dole the tax collector for the welfare state, because Dole’s solution to the budget deficit was always more taxes. He had no interest in the tougher fight to actually reduce spending.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 17, 2023 4:42 am

and not enough people who are stupid enough to think we’re having a climate emergency

Tom Abbott
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 17, 2023 5:12 am

“Not enough lithium, not enough cobalt, not enough grid.”

That’s it in a nutshell.

The Climate Change Alarmists have set a goal, and there’s no way to get there from here, but they skip that part, and just concentrate on the goal, to the detriment of all of us.

It’s Delusional Thinking and/or Socialist Thinking. Maybe I shouldn’t descibe delusion thinking as separate from socialist thinking, that being because I think socialist thinking *is* delusional thinking.

Socialist Thinking in this context would be where the individual does not care if CO2 warming is true or not, but only cares that using CO2-phobia will lead to more socialist control over society, the goal being political power, not CO2 reduction necessarily.

J Boles
May 16, 2023 10:37 am

I agree, it will not happen because it can not happen, way too much against it, and any forcing by the gummint will cause much pain and a huge backlash. It is just an exercise in virtue signaling. Popcorn please!

scadsobees
Reply to  J Boles
May 16, 2023 11:54 am

The question is will the huge backlash happen before irreperable damage has been done to infrastructure and the proletariat.

HotScot
Reply to  scadsobees
May 16, 2023 3:27 pm

Nothing political is irreparable. It just takes a lot of time to repair the irreparable.

The USSR/Russia was irreparable in the 90’s. China was irreparable in the 50’s.

Tom Abbott
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 5:46 am

For some reason, not instigated by me, when I looked at Facebook lately, I see video after video of Russian armor being destroyed in Ukraine. It looks like shooting fish in a barrel.

I saw a report that the Russians have something like 10,000 tanks in storage, but they are using mainly their T-62, world war II tanks, because the newer models they have stored are more modern models that are much more difficult for the Russians to get battle ready, so they are using the oldest tanks they have, that have the least technolgy that can go wrong.

But it doesn’t matter, the Ukrainians are destroying the tanks as fast as the Russians put them on the front line. None of the Russian tanks can withstand the anti-tank missiles the Ukrainians are using.

It looks like a Fiasco for the Russian troops. Putin is insane to continue this war. All he is doing is getting a lot of his own people killed. For no good reason.

MarkW
Reply to  HotScot
May 17, 2023 12:20 pm

Once the Democrats finish putting their fixes into the vote counting machinery, only a revolution will be able to “repair” the damage.

MarkW
Reply to  MarkW
May 17, 2023 12:22 pm

The Russian “repair” didn’t last long.
The current Russia is as bad as the former Soviet Union, it’s just a lot smaller.
Though of course Putin is still trying to reassemble the Soviet Union.

More Soylent Green!
May 16, 2023 10:38 am

These regulations are an end-around of the legislative process. The proposed rules would never pass Congress have a difficult time passing Congress and would leave politicians accountable to an angry public for expensive, ineffective laws.

So much for saving democracy.

These laws also have nothing to do with “carbon” emissions, or other GHGs. Passenger vehicles in the US just aren’t responsible for that much of the world’s CO2. This is the opposite of low-hanging fruit. The net effect on emissions would be quite small and that’s only if China, India, Africa and the rest of the developing world don’t increase their emissions.

Sensible people know these nations aren’t going to hamstring themselves. This leaves us with asking why? Why implement costly regulations to no effect? Why hobble ourselves?

The answer is simple. Environmentalist and progressives know they are smarter than us. They know we need to be told how to live, where to live, what to drive, what to eat, etc.. They also simply crave power for power’s sake. Whenever the imagine a better world, it is always with themselves and the like-minded in command.

michel
Reply to  More Soylent Green!
May 17, 2023 1:09 am

Not sure about your last para, I think its a good deal less rational even than that! But the earlier part is spot on. Policies that manage to be both impossible to implement and useless if implemented.

karlomonte
May 16, 2023 10:47 am

Adding a thousand years to these goalpost numbers wouldn’t make a lick of difference to the result.

Of course Brandon will be dead by 2040 so he doesn’t care.

JamesB_684
Reply to  karlomonte
May 16, 2023 3:45 pm

I’ll be surprised if Joe “the big guy” Biden makes it to 2025.

MarkW
Reply to  JamesB_684
May 17, 2023 12:31 pm

There’s a reason why the Democrats have decided not to have any debates this time.

general custer
May 16, 2023 11:03 am

The EV mandate is an example of Soviet-style thinking where government policies are used to determine consumer choices. If people wanted EVs the feds wouldn’t need to provide subsidies or demand production. The reality is that the nomenclatura of the various levels of government are determined to organize and control every aspect of our lives, from energy to agriculture to housing to medicine to our diets and so on. Existing structures are required to have subterranean piping systems installed to exhaust volatiles or radon gas that may be trapped beneath the concrete floors. There’s never been a death certificate with the cause being given as “radon exposure”. Thousands of dollars go to rent-seekers exploiting this EPA requirement with no proof that any benefit has been created.

Of course this is justified by the economic concept of “externalities”, that an ordinary human produces effects that are undesirable to other humans by simply going about his life. Ergo an IC automobile releases noxious substances that are negatives to surrounding people and even change the climate. In fact, all organic behavior produces externalities, plants, animals and humans. Dandelions grow on lawns, gophers dig holes, humans fart in church. Government agencies must stop these things.

William Howard
Reply to  general custer
May 16, 2023 11:14 am

the Green Leap forward

AGW is Not Science
Reply to  William Howard
May 16, 2023 1:49 pm

No, The Green Leap Backward.

J Boles
Reply to  general custer
May 16, 2023 1:17 pm

And all govt agencies tend to grow in size and assume more and more power money and control (EPA)

captainfish
May 16, 2023 11:08 am

“The courts may once again be the saving grace.”
bwwahahahahahahahaaaaaa… dont count on it.
Courts have forgotten how to read and constantly rule in violation of the US Constitution. Courts will just rule that citizens have no standing to even file a lawsuit against the gov’t, like they’ve done over last 3 years.

Tom Halla
May 16, 2023 11:32 am

Hardcore greens want the peons to have a pair of sturdy sandals. Motor vehicles are too good for the hoi polloi.

Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 12:02 pm

A further comment. Biden’s EPA is delusional. This BEV thing is but one of two examples in the past week.
The other is mandating power plant CCS based on the Clean Air Act. That act specifically allows the EPA to only mandate BACT (best available control technology). So for example sulfur flue gas scrubbers, catalytic auto exhaust converters. The EPA problem is, power plant CCS isn’t ‘available’. There is not a single viable scaled CCS anywhere in the world despite a decade and an half of talking. Every single one proposed in Europe got cancelled as being infeasible once detailed engineering started. The only heavily subsidized (in an effort to meet BACT) US attempt was Kemper, Mississippi. Came in $2.5 billion over budget, a year late, and only CCS 65% of emissions due to CCS downtime. The S part was easy—into depleted nearby natural gas fields in Louisiana.

The only other exhaust gas scaled CC anywhere in the world is SaskPower’s Boundary Dam generating station unit 4. Despite years of tweaking with modified designs, its availability is still under 60% and its parasitic power draw is over 30%. (The original ‘plan’ was 85% uptime and 20% parasitic load. CC was to be sold to a nearby oil field for tertiary oil recovery, so no S. And the oil field cancelled the original contract when SaskPower could not deliver the contracted minimum CO2.)

The only other industrially scaled S was a federally subsidized large trial in Illinois to inject ethanol fermentation CO2 (so no CC) into an imperviously capped deep brine aquifer. The problem was the CO2 reacted with the brine to form solids that fully plugged the injection well within a month. Infeasible to drill new deep injection wells every month. Experiment was abandoned.

More Soylent Green!
Reply to  Rud Istvan
May 16, 2023 12:51 pm

All true. The EPA doesn’t care. They hope they can implement these rules while the cases wind through the courts.

This is but another example that shows are system depends greatly on the character of the people in power. We may have checks and balances but those mean nothing to people without respect for the rule of law.

People who are on a (secular) religious quest are most dangerous of all. Any lie is justified. Any corner-cutting, any law-breaking, anything, is justified to accomplish their goals.

ResourceGuy
May 16, 2023 12:10 pm

Since the EPA dictates are expressed in percentage terms, the industry can meet the decree by cutting capacity, output, and UAW workers. Then call it MiniGM, MiniUAW, and mini future for the country.

ResourceGuy
May 16, 2023 12:20 pm

Why can’t EPA and the Dems do something useful and focus on banning urban heat islands? Oh, I remember why when I look at the election results by county across the U.S.

mleskovarsocalrrcom
May 16, 2023 12:28 pm

You cannot legislate acceptance. You can force people to comply but that is all. Remember this when you vote.

MarkW
Reply to  mleskovarsocalrrcom
May 17, 2023 12:38 pm

Over the years, the Democrats have gotten very good at forcing people to comply.

Look at all the people who have been fired for saying the wrong thing.
Even big companies like Chase have started refusing to do business with people or groups who support the wrong policies or politicians.

Peta of Newark
May 16, 2023 12:34 pm

Book review story tip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBpn8DDWjvs

(What I’ve been saying a lot recently= Everything is now: Wrong
It appears I’m not the only one to think so)

180 Degrees Book.PNG
mkelly
May 16, 2023 1:41 pm

I can hardly wait to see how long it takes for northern cities to plow streets when an 18+ inch snow storm goes by and all plows are EV.

general custer
Reply to  mkelly
May 16, 2023 2:35 pm

You don’t have to wait, it’s already happened.

mkelly
Reply to  general custer
May 16, 2023 4:47 pm

Did not know this thanks. Proves how useless they are.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  general custer
May 17, 2023 5:04 am

wow, $523K for an electric snow plow truck!

DocSiders
May 16, 2023 3:37 pm

Do the arithmetic and anyone can see that we are SEVERAL THOUSAND 2GW NUCLEAR PLANTS short of having the capacity to run our WHOLE Private/Commercial TRANSPORTATION FLEET on EV’s….with NO PLAN to produce that power… while destroying incentives to continue to provide Fossil Fuels.

This is a planned disaster to destroy a great Civilization.

Maybe $15/gal gasoline in 5 to 8 years will bring EVEN BRAINLESS DEMOCRATS to see reality.

Total Authoritarian….Destructive Totalitarianism. Using Fake Science and Lies to convince stupid people that RETURNING CO2 to the Atmosphere/Oceans/Biosphere from whence it came… will destroy the world.

n.n
May 16, 2023 4:46 pm

Don’t underestimate the secular belief in immaculate conception: human life, Big Bang theory, clean energy, natural resources, affordable yet progressive prices (e.g. medical), wars without borders, [catastrophic] [anthropogenic] immigration reform, Green blight, etc. Industry, investors, politicians, influencers in transsectional niches, are on board with the environmentalism cover-up, renewable demand, and laundered profits. A minority, perhaps majority, have good perceptions backed by redistributive change (e.g. subsidies). It will happen.

Kit P
May 16, 2023 6:08 pm

The purpose of having an EV is to tell people you have an EV. Same for PV, or a Lexis.

These are examples of bad ideas. So if you told me you had an EV, or solar PV and gave me a BS reason, I would think that the to tell people.

I am not saying that there is not a good reason for doing something that is a bad idea. Storing electricity in batteries for transpiration is a bad idea generally. In WWII submarines store electricity in batteries.

Today POTUS Biden has nuclear submarines.

So if POTUS Biden wanted reduce the use of ICE today and not wait 10 or 20 years, could he find a good idea from WWII?

That is right he could ration energy and let us figure out how to do it. I used to car pool.

Of course it is not about doing something it about telling people about what you are going to do.

Therefore I pledge that my next new car will be electric if fossil fuel is not part of the power mix.

Edward Katz
May 16, 2023 6:12 pm

The Biden administration’s numbers reflect more wishful thinking by environmentalists than actual reality. Unless sticker prices fall into line with gas/diesel counterparts, single charge cruising ranges increase to 250 miles=400 km., long term battery life becomes better established, public charging stations become more widespread and cold-weather problems are overcome, EVs will continue to be a tough sell in the US and Canada. One of the key lines in the above article pertains to whether enough technological advances will make the dates set out by the EPA actually feasible, and if the costs of these advances drives up the prices of the vehicles even more, improvement in sales will become even less likely.

Joseph Zorzin
Reply to  Edward Katz
May 17, 2023 5:09 am

“cold-weather problems”

Just curious but do they also have hot weather problems?

MarkW
Reply to  Joseph Zorzin
May 17, 2023 12:42 pm

yes

JohninRedding
May 16, 2023 7:43 pm

The only way this madness can be stopped is to vote in an Republican Congress and President who have the will power to shut it all down. All these regulations need to be voided. and it would be a good idea to close a few government agencies like DOEnergy, EPA, etc.

michel
May 17, 2023 12:49 am

The thing no-one ever asks is: how much effect will these measures have on global CO2 emissions? And then, assuming the theory is right, on global temps?

The answer is, too small to be measurable, and none. Totally pointless even if the theory is correct, and even if the proposals are doable.

But that will not deter the climate activists from still wanting to do it all.

observa
May 17, 2023 3:56 am

Clearly we need to ditch fuel excise and carbon tax for a level playing field pneumatic tyre pollution tax-
Tyre-makers under pressure as too much rubber hits the road (msn.com)
The lighter and unsqueally the better eh greenies?

Joseph Zorzin
May 17, 2023 4:16 am

emissions control standards for vehicles. Billed as the “most ambitious climate regulations”

Makes little sense. An emission standard is a climate regulation?

Tom Abbott
May 17, 2023 4:23 am

From the article: “The current rules, as proposed, have numerous technical and legal vulnerabilities. They also stand to undermine environmental progress as Americans will undoubtedly settle on driving older cars longer instead of amassing serious debt to acquire a new, less reliable car.”

That’s right.

I think what I will do is buy a new internal combustion engine and put it in my old GMC pickup truck. One of those 500 horsepower LS engines. 🙂

SteveZ56
May 17, 2023 8:17 am

The light-duty category covers cars, trucks, and vans, and requires 67% of all new car sales to be electric by 2032. The heavy-duty category covers 18-wheelers, buses, and other work-related vehicles and requires half of new buses and a quarter of new truck sales to be electric by 2032. 

The problem is, the EPA (or any other government agency) can’t “require” people to buy something they don’t really want, especially when there is a viable alternative that has been in use for well over 100 years, whose design has been improved over all that time.

Gasoline-powered cars routinely last about 15 to 20 years if not damaged in accidents, so there will be an increased incentive for owners of gasoline-powered cars to have them well-maintained so that they last beyond 2032. This would also become a boon to the auto repair business, where hundreds of thousands of trained mechanics with long experience in repairing gasoline-powered cars will continue to keep old, reliable cars running because people can’t afford electric cars whose batteries die in the middle of nowhere in blizzards.

Such an EPA “rule” or “regulation”, if allowed to stand, would also create a mad rush to buy new gasoline-powered cars in 2030 and 2031, before the rules go into effect, especially if people are aware of the proposed regulation 9 years ahead of time. If these cars last an average of 15 years, gasoline-powered cars will continue to dominate the entire fleet through 2045, and will support the auto repair industry to keep them running as long as possible.

A rule or regulation initiated by the Executive Branch (including the EPA), if it has not passed Congress, can be rescinded by the next President. President Biden is very unpopular right now, with only a 36% approval in recent polls, so that it is likely that he will be replaced by a Republican in 2024, who could rescind this rule in 2025, long before it is scheduled to take effect.

The push toward all-electric vehicles doesn’t make sense, even from an emissions point of view. This only transfers the emissions from the cars’ tailpipes to the stack of a power plant, which results in MORE emissions if the power plant is coal-fired.

A much better alternative is to incentivize the use of hybrid vehicles, in which part of the energy from braking is used to recharge a battery, which can power the wheels at low speeds, while the gasoline engine powers the vehicle at high speeds. Such vehicles routinely get over 40 miles per gallon in city driving (low-speed driving with frequent starts and stops). These vehicles can significantly reduce emissions in congested areas (where pollutant concentrations are higher), while not increasing power plant emissions, because they do not require recharging from the electrical grid.

For heavy-duty transportation, another viable alternative (which has been used in several large cities) is natural-gas-powered buses, which usually operate over short distances in congested areas. Natural gas tanks have to be refilled under pressure, which makes them unsafe for routine refueling by untrained personnel (such as drivers at gas stations), but for a municipal bus system, they can be refueled at night (for example, between midnight and 5 AM, when there is little demand for bus transport) at a central location by a small team of safety-trained personnel. Natural-gas-powered buses emit far less pollutants per passenger-mile than diesel-powered buses.

MarkW
Reply to  SteveZ56
May 17, 2023 12:46 pm

Just great, your big solution to bad government regulation is different bad government regulation.

Tony_G
May 17, 2023 8:51 am

“67% of all new car sales

Not manufacture, but sales. So will dealers have to impost quotas? They must have sold two EVs before they can sell a ICE? Even if government dictates what must be made, how does it dictate what people buy?

(I don’t think I want to know the answer)

May 17, 2023 2:11 pm

you guys need to catch up. future is coming. denial wont work

karlomonte
Reply to  Steven Mosher
May 17, 2023 4:18 pm

Got yer battery car yet, mosh?

ATheoK
May 18, 2023 7:10 am

as Americans will undoubtedly settle on driving older cars longer instead of amassing serious debt to acquire a new, less reliable car.”

I like to watch car repair shows. Preferring those shows that actually do repair vehicles versus those that solely push products and rarely incur grease covered hands.

Over the last decade their has been an upswing of shows focusing on rescuing junked vehicles. A vehicle’s frame and body are refit with newer suspension and drivetrains. Engines and transmissions are rebuilt and installed.

Total costs are much less than buying a new car and the rebuilt vehicles are very serviceable for road trips, errands and job commutes.

Crushing the new car market only increases the amount of people returning expired cars back to service.

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