OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The campaign of former President Donald Trump is fighting back for Americans after the administration of President Joe Biden announced its crackdown on gasoline-powered automobiles.
The administration finalized new regulations for gas-powered vehicles that many critics say would effectively force customers to purchase expensive electric vehicles, Fox News reported.
“Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate will force Americans to buy ultra-expensive cars they do not want and cannot afford while destroying the U.S. auto industry in the process,” Karoline Leavitt, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, said to Fox News. “This radical policy is anti-jobs, anti-consumer and anti-American.”
“It will destroy the livelihoods of countless U.S. autoworkers while sending the U.S. auto industry to China. President Trump will reverse Joe Biden’s extreme electric vehicle mandate on Day One,” she said.
Fox News adds:
Meanwhile, under the regulations unveiled Wednesday, the federal government will enforce the most stringent tailpipe emissions restrictions ever finalized beginning with model year 2027 light-duty and medium-duty vehicles. Those regulations are slated to progressively ramp up through 2032, forcing most new car purchases to be battery electric and plug-in hybrid within that time frame.
In one “low cost” model EPA outlined in the rule, administration officials said automakers would be forced to ensure 56% of light-duty car sales are battery electric and another 13% are hybrid by 2032, meaning nearly 70% of new cars would be zero-emissions or low-emissions by then.
But Biden touted his new regulations, which may not be popular in the swing state of Michigan.
“Three years ago, I set an ambitious target: that half of all new cars and trucks sold in 2030 would be zero-emission,” the president said. “I brought together American automakers. I brought together American autoworkers. Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs. And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”
American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers President and CEO Chet Thompson and American Petroleum Institute President and CEO Mike Sommers have asked Congress to step in and block the plan.
“At a time when millions of Americans are struggling with high costs and inflation, the Biden administration has finalized a regulation that will unequivocally eliminate most new gas cars and traditional hybrids from the U.S. market in less than a decade,” the two men said. “As much as the President and EPA claim to have ‘eased’ their approach, nothing could be further from the truth.”
“This regulation will make new gas-powered vehicles unavailable or prohibitively expensive for most Americans,” they said. “For them, this wildly unpopular policy is going to feel and function like a ban.”
In January, days after United Auto Workers union President Shawn Fain said the organization was formally endorsing Biden’s reelection, he dropped a bombshell during a live Fox News interview about the preferred candidate for most members.
He appeared to suggest it will be Donald Trump.
After Fain fielded some questions about the slumping sales of electric vehicles and how that could affect the union labor force moving forward, host Neil Cavuto noted that in past decades, sizeable numbers of UAW members supported President Ronald Reagan and his successor, President George H. W. Bush, as well as other Republican presidents through the years.
Cavuto then went on to point out that many UAW members were supportive of Trump in 2016 and 2020 and remain supportive of him now before asking Fain how he felt about that.
“Look, it’s democracy in action,” the UAW boss began. “Let me be clear about this: A great majority of our members will not vote for President Biden. Yeah, some will, but that’s the reality of this. The majority of our members are gonna vote their paychecks. They’re gonna vote for an economy that works for them.”
While Fain did not say that the “great majority” would be voting for Trump, that was the impression he gave since Cavuto had just mentioned past UAW rank-and-file support for previous Republican presidents.
