President Joe Biden pledged this week to replace all vehicles owned by the federal government with U.S.-made electric vehicles.
“The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles which we’re going to replace with clean, electric vehicles made right here in America by American workers,” Biden said while discussing an executive order aimed at increasing federal procurement of American-made products.
The executive order did not discuss vehicles specifically, but did say the government should buy products from “sources that will help American businesses” compete in “strategic industries.”
“As part of his historic commitment to increasing procurement investments, Biden will make a major federal commitment to purchase clean vehicles for federal, state, tribal, postal, and local fleets, making sure that we retain the critical union jobs involved in running and maintaining these fleets,” his campaign said previously.
As of 2019, the federal government owned 645,047 vehicles. Biden did not say how long it would take to replace the U.S. fleet with electric vehicles, or when his administration would begin that process.
The announcement is one of many policies Biden plans to implement to make climate change a priority, he said.
However, as Axios pointed out, Biden’s plan is unrealistic.
“The vehicles Biden wants are still several years away and his purchase criteria would require an expensive overhaul of automakers’ manufacturing strategies, not to mention a reversal of fortune for labor organizers long stymied by Tesla and other non-union companies,” the political news site explained. “Right now, not a single model fits the president’s criteria: battery-powered, made in America, by union workers.”
To meet Biden’s criteria, the federal government would more than likely need to purchase Tesla vehicles, since Tesla produces the vast majority of electric vehicles in the U.S.
But this would anger leftist organizations tied to labor unions, since Tesla does not have a union and CEO Elon Musk has openly criticized federal labor laws.
The only electric vehicle made by union labor is General Motors’ Chevrolet Bolt. But most of its parts are imported from Korea, Axios reported.
