Feenstra leads bipartisan, bicameral contingent in denouncing EPA’s proposed EV rule

The Biden administration must withdraw the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) proposed electric vehicle rule, according to a bipartisan, bicameral letter led by U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-IA) and signed by almost 140 members of Congress.

Specifically, the EPA’s proposed rule — entitled the “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles,” which would require 67 percent of new light-duty vehicles and 46 percent of medium-duty vehicles to be electric by 2032 — amounts to a de facto mandate for electric vehicles (EVs) and phase out of the internal combustion engine vehicle, according to a Feb. 22 letter the lawmakers sent to President Joe Biden and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young.

“We write today to urge you to immediately halt and reject the implementation of” this rule, wrote Rep. Feenstra and his colleagues, and “to highlight the failures of this administration’s hasty and costly transition to EVs.”

The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 6, 2023, voted in a bipartisan manner to overturn the rule when members approved the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act of 2023, H.R. 4468, and similar efforts are currently being pursued in the U.S. Senate, according to their letter. 

Rep. Feenstra and his colleagues say that the rule is contradictory to all conventional predictions about where the automobile industry is headed in the coming years, including the Biden administration’s own U.S. Department of Energy.

“Recent reporting from sources inside your administration indicates that EPA now intends to ease the rule’s requirements through 2030 to give automakers more time to comply,” they wrote. “This again shows that even your own agencies know this mandate is absurd and unrealistic, and threatens to harm both industry and consumers.”

The EPA’s proposed rule also unnecessarily restricts consumer choice and forces expensive EVs onto Americans at a time when they can least afford it and when most Americans still prefer the internal combustion engine vehicle, according to their letter.

“Major U.S. automakers have recently lowered their targets and pulled back planned investments in EVs due to low consumer demand and struggling EV units,” wrote Rep. Feenstra and the lawmakers. “Further, automobile dealers across the country have said EVs continue to sit unpurchased on dealership lots, despite automakers accepting massive losses and unsustainable government incentives.”

The lawmakers said that the Biden administration continues to degrade liquid fuels and combustion engines in order to implement its costly Green New Deal agenda, which they think harms America’s families and businesses, increases gas prices, and makes the nation more dependent on foreign supply chains, particularly China.

“Therefore, we strongly urge you to halt and reject the implementation of the EPA’s proposed tailpipe rule,” they wrote. “The EPA’s proposed rule is burdensome and inconsistent with the reality of the industry and needs to be rejected for the good of American families and businesses.”