Biden administration’s auto regulations out of touch with reality

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Biden administration’s auto regulations out of touch with reality
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigeg touted the new regulation | Courtesy Flickr

On April 1, President Joe Biden’s Department of Transportation raised the mileage standard of cars and light trucks to increase to 49 miles per gallon by 2026. Unfortunately, this wasn’t an April Fools’ prank: the new regulation is here to stay, and its implications will change the way Americans drive. 

If 49 miles per gallon sounds high, that’s because it is. The current standard for cars and light trucks is 40 mpg – 33% less fuel-efficient than the new standard. At first glance, this new regulation looks great. Who wouldn’t want more miles per gallon of gas? 

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg touted the new standard, saying “Americans buying a new vehicle will spend less on gas than they would have if we hadn’t taken this step.” While it’s true that Americans will spend a bit less on gas as a result of the regulation, there are other problems that the White House chose not to address.

One of these issues is the simple fact that asking the automotive industry to accomplish such a technological leap in five years will result in dramatic changes to the construction of cars. According to the Daily Wire, these changes will likely include “more energy-efficient turbo-charged engines, direct fuel injection systems, and […] automatic shut-off features that turn cars off instead of allowing them to idle at red lights and parking lots.” All of this new technology will be costly – and that cost will be reflected in the price of the car. 

Like gasoline, the price of new and used cars has skyrocketed since Biden took office in 2020. Fortune reported the average price of a used car increased by 45% over the last year to a shocking $26,000. New cars have increased in price by a more modest 8% to $38,617, but inventory has decreased by 58% due to a variety of factors including supply chain issues and chip shortages. Now, with the new requirements, the price of cars will increase even more. The few hundred dollars that Americans might save at the gas pump each year will be offset by the thousands of dollars in increased prices of new cars.

According to the White House, however, the burden of paying thousands of dollars more for a car is a necessary sacrifice for the sake of preventing “climate change.” Essentially, the new regulations are a tool of the Biden administration to accomplish their climate agenda – by forcing auto manufacturers to produce, and Americans to purchase, electric or hybrid vehicles.

This strategy is both out-of-touch and counter-productive. First, purchasing an electric vehicle is not a solution to high gas prices. Most Americans who are frustrated by the price of gas do not have tens of thousands of dollars to spend on a Tesla, despite what Stephen Colbert thinks. Second, replacing traditional cars with hybrid or electric vehicles is actually less climate-friendly, not more. Politico reported that “widespread adoption of electric vehicles nationwide will likely increase air pollution compared with new internal combustion vehicles. You read that right: more electric cars and trucks will mean more pollution.”

This is because electric vehicles are charged from America’s electrical grid – which is mostly powered by fossil fuels. What’s more, the batteries used to power electric vehicles contain rare minerals such as lithium and cobalt, and extracting these minerals is environmentally damaging. 

According to a Guardian interview, “There’s a fundamental question behind all this about the model of consumption and production that we now have, which is simply not sustainable […] Everyone having an electric vehicle means an enormous amount of mining, refining and all the polluting activities that come with it.” 

Overall, pushing Americans to switch to “greener” vehicles in just five years – or at all – is not going to solve out-of-control gas prices, and it is certainly not going to prevent climate change. The Biden administration must get back in touch with reality, because telling Americans that they need to buy expensive cars in the midst of record inflation is not a winning strategy.