(Headline USA) Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign flipped on yet another policy this week, insisting that the newly anointed Democratic nominee for president never supported electric vehicle mandate—despite the Biden administration releasing rules last year requiring car companies to phase out the production of traditional gas-powered vehicles.
In a “fact check” email, Harris campaign rapid response director Ammar Moussa responded to charges made by GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio. At a recent campaign rally in Michigan, they said that Harris would “force every American to own an electric vehicle.”
Vance cited tailpipe-emissions rules released by the Environmental Protection Agency under Harris and President Joe Biden that require 56% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2032.
“FACT: Vice President Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate,” Moussa claimed, insisting that Harris only supports the “ground-breaking” electric vehicle subsidies and “tax credits for electric vehicles” passed as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
However, the EPA’s recent regulations aren’t the only indication that Harris supports phasing out gas-powered vehicles.
In April 2019, Harris—an original sponsor of the controversial Green New Deal—co-sponsored the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act to transition “the U.S. to 100% zero-emission vehicles.”
The bill would have forced automakers to make zero emission cars 50% of their total sales by 2030. The mandate would ramp up an additional 5% every year until the U.S. was only selling electric vehicles.
And when Harris ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, her campaign promoted even more aggressive standards, including a total ban on internal combustion engine cars by 2035, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
“Kamala Harris’ radical energy policies such as her EV mandate and the Green New Scam will hurt American workers, help China, and do virtually nothing to help the environment,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
This is just the latest policy flip-flop for the Harris campaign.
The vice president has changed course on a number of issues since entering the 2024 race, including banning fracking, her support for Medicare for All, and finishing construction of the southern border wall.
