Photo courtesy of epSos.de via Wikimedia Commons. Auto manufacturers will be required to limit production of fossil fuel-powered vehicles under the policy released by the Biden administration in April.
By Sarah Grinnell ’26
Staff Writer
As the biggest source of carbon emissions in the United States, the transportation sector is a key focus of Biden’s push to usher in a greener economy, according to The Washington Post. On Wednesday, April 12, the Biden administration issued new restrictions that will crack down on auto emissions harder than ever before, The Washington Post reported. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposals, as detailed in an NBC article, the new rules could cut as much as 10 billion tons of carbon emissions by 2050. Per NPR, the policy will achieve this by issuing “regulatory penalties on companies that do not move quickly enough toward electric cars,” thereby accelerating the shift to cleaner vehicles. According to NBC, the rules will go into effect for any cars made after 2027.
According to NPR, the limits, based on the size and type of each car, are placed on tailpipe emissions rather than the actual quantity of gasoline or diesel vehicles produced by auto manufacturers. The restrictions are expected to put pressure on auto companies to manufacture more electric or zero-emission vehicles in order to comply with the regulations, The Washington Post explained. In fact, according to NPR, as much as 67 percent of all vehicles manufactured by auto companies could be electric by 2032 because the standards are “so stringent.” This would surpass the 50 percent goal that Biden initially set in his first year in office, NBC reported.
A number of officials have spoken out with certain concerns about the efficacy of these ambitious proposals. Larry Burns, a former General Motors executive and current industry technology advisor, expressed that this kind of transition necessitates the construction of entirely new factories, assembly lines and supply chains, which would be a years-long process to implement, The Washington Post reported. Furthermore, according to The Washington Post, the reengineering of one car model alone can take up to five years. Washington State Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, expressed her concerns that the new standards will “make cars unaffordable” and especially hurt low-income families, NBC reported.
The implementation of these new rules will direct the more than $31 billion-worth of subsidies set aside for climate and infrastructure in the Inflation Reduction Act towards tax credits for EV manufacturers, additional tax credits to encourage consumers to buy vehicles and roughly $7.5 billion to construct more EV charging stations, which could help lower the cost of electric vehicles significantly, The Washington Post reported. The shortage of charging stations has long frustrated current EV owners and deterred potential buyers, Car and Driver points out.
According to EPA administrator Michael Regan, the short-term structural difficulties will be worth the long-term environmental benefits. In a Washington Post article, Regan stated, “[T]he stakes cannot be higher. … We must continue to act with haste and ambition to confront the climate crisis and to leave all our children … a healthier and safer world.” As Regan said in an NPR article, roughly 7.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, “equivalent to four years worth of the entire U.S. transportation sector” emissions could be eliminated with the new standards. Margo Oge, a former EPA official and the chair of the board of the International Council on Clean Transportation, has heralded the proposal as “the single most important regulatory initiative by the Biden administration … to really reduce the worst impacts of climate change,” NPR reported.
The new proposals will build on the momentum of increasing consumer interest in EVs. According to The Washington Post, fully electric cars comprised seven percent of new U.S. vehicle registrations in January, versus 4.1 percent from the prior year. Tom Van Heeke, a senior policy adviser at EV manufacturer Rivian Automotive, told The Washington Post, “the industry can’t sell them fast enough, as far as I can tell.” For this reason, the EPA believes that, despite the potential financial and infrastructural concerns raised by Burns and Rodgers, consumer support and their demonstrated willingness to invest in EVs will help smooth this transition into a greener future.