Capito,Manchin and Morrisey blast Biden EV rule announcement

Mar. 21—By Greg Jordan

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

Federal and state leaders spoke out Wednesday after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its finalized tailpipe emission rules which lawmakers argue were created to make Americans switch to electric vehicles.

U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, released a statement about the EPA's new admission rules which she said are designed to push Americans into buying electric vehicles.

"With the final electric vehicle rules announced today, the Biden administration is deciding for Americans which kinds of cars they are allowed to buy, rent, and drive," Capito said. "Ironically, this is all coming at a time when the EPA is simultaneously forcing the closure of power plants that provide the base load electricity these vehicles will rely on. These regulations represent yet another step toward an unrealistic transition to electric vehicles that Americans do not want and cannot afford, which threatens America's electric grid and increases our reliance on China for critical minerals. I appreciate EPW Committee members Senator Ricketts and Senator Sullivan leading the congressional effort to overturn this harmful rule."

U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is chairman of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, also spoke out about the EPA's final vehicle tailpipe emission standards.

"The federal government has no authority and no right to mandate what type of car or truck Americans can purchase for their everyday lives," Manchin said. "This reckless and ill-informed rule will impose what is effectively an EV mandate without ensuring the security of our supply chains from nations like China and without a realistic transition plan that addresses our domestic infrastructure needs."

West Virginia's Attorney General said President Joe Biden's announcement about new automobile emissions standards "is nothing but sugar-coating the end game."

"The only thing Biden has accomplished with today's announcement is to delay the onset of a depression in West Virginia — it certainly won't help avoid one if these radical EV policies remain in place," Morrisey said. "While America has the resources to power our traditional, fuel-powered vehicles, we simply aren't ready to jump into full-scale electric vehicles, a big part of this administration's radical green new deal."

"This is an attack on rural America and rural Americans who are working really hard to make ends meet who are going to get bludgeoned by this rule," Morrisey said. "And this comes in a time when the Biden administration is plotting to destroy whatever is left of our energy production through regulations that would effectively shut down coal- and gas-fired power plants — the backbone of the nation's power generation."

Recent problems in the electric vehicle market have only confirmed that a renewed push toward electrification is the wrong choice, Morrisey said. Hertz was recently forced to sell tens of thousands of electric vehicles from its fleet after they proved difficult to maintain and unpopular with consumers. Automakers are discontinuing certain EV models after continuing issues and their manufacturers are struggling as consumer demand for the vehicles has slowed.

— Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com

Contact Greg Jordan at gjordan@bdtonline.com