By signing an executive order on Thursday, President Joe Biden tightened America’s fuel-efficiency standards and committed America to giving billions in green-energy subsidies to the nation’s electric vehicle manufacturers.
The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board said Biden unified “Big Business” and “Big Government to grab subsidies and raise consumer prices.”
“Auto makers have been touting their increasing EV sales and claim electric cars are the ‘future,'” the Editorial Board wrote. “Great. Then government doesn’t need to subsidize them. And CEOs wonder why Americans have soured on big business. This isn’t capitalism. It’s corporate socialism, or state capitalism.”
Biden adopted the plan that California drafted in coordation with with five major automakers: BMW, Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and Volvo.
The executive order states that the corporate average fuel-economy (Cafe) standards will increase by 10 percent in 2023 and then by 5 percent each year thereafter until 2026.
The Cafe standards will mandate that new cars achieve 52 miles per gallon by 2026.
Stricter fuel-efficieny regulations will cause gas-powered vehicles to cost more and make electric vehicles more affordable in comparison.
Reversing the Obama administration’s rules, Former President Donald Trump froze Cafe standards in 2020 so that manufacturers could continue to produce vehicles that get 37 miles per gallon on average until 2026. Biden restored the Obama-era regulations.
In a joint statement released prior to the crony signing ceremony, Ford, GM, and Stellantis thanked the Biden administration for promoting their “shared aspiration” as “partners” for electric vehicles to constitute between 40 and 50 percent of their sales by 2030.
The companies admitted that they cannot achieve these levels in a fair market with open competition.
“This represents a dramatic shift from the U.S. market today that can be achieved only with the timely deployment of the full suite of electrification policies committed to by the Administration,” including government subsidies, government-funded charging stations and battery manufacturing, Detroit’s auto makers said.
Even with current electric vehicles subsidies, only 3 percent of America’s car sales are electric vehicles, and these are mostly Tesla vehicles.
To come anyway near the 40-50 percent mark, automakers need the federal and state goverments to grant continued subsidies for electric vehicle purchases.
Biden plans to pass a Green New Deal, an energy law that will dole out billions in subsidies for electric vehicles.
California currently offers $10,000 in subsidies to electric vehicle buyers.
