Another Reason To Vote For Trump
I & I Editorial Board
July 23, 2024
Late last year, Donald Trump said if he wins in November, he will on day one close the border and “drill, drill, drill.” He’s now added to that list a promise to “end the electric vehicle mandate” upon taking office. It will be refreshing to have a president who isn’t beholden to crackpot activism.
“I will end the electric vehicle mandate on day one,” Trump said last week during his acceptance speech, “thereby saving the U.S. auto industry from complete obliteration which is happening right now and saving U.S. customers thousands and thousands of dollars per car.”
Four months ago, the Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency finalized a new emissions rule that requires “up to two-thirds of new cars and trucks sold in the U.S.
to be electric vehicles (EVs) in eight years.”
It was of course heralded as “one of the most
significant climate regulations in the nation’s history,” “
a day to celebrate” and “a
positive step forward in protecting communities.”
So it’s just that easy to set the world on its proper course. It seems that anyone could do it.
But there’s much more to this issue.
Aside from the many EV defects – they’re
pricey, can be
exasperating to charge, tend to
self-immolate,
burn through other people’s money,
pulverize our roads and their manufacturing chain is an
environmental malignancy – the Biden rule is a gross violation of freedom of choice for consumers, who have made it clear through
surveys and
weak sales that most don’t want them.
This is not lost on Washington Post columnist George Will. A few weeks after the rule was finalized, he pointed out “government’s language often radiates contempt for the governed,” and in this case “explicitly intended to restrict consumers’ choices by forcing manufacturers to produce fewer cars that have tailpipe emissions.”
“Drivers,” Will added, “will be able to choose any vehicle they want — from the ‘clean’ category government prefers.”