WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) led a bicameral group of 120 members of Congress in sending a letter to U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Deputy Administrator Sophie Shulman calling for the withdrawal of the Biden administration’s proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and light-duty trucks. The proposed standards, which would require automakers to more than double average fleet-wide fuel economy in less than 10 years, do not comply with federal law, and would effectively mandate the mass production of electric vehicles (EVs) and a phase out of gas-powered cars and trucks.
“We write to express our deep concern with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and light trucks, which represent yet another attempt by this administration to use the rulemaking process to impose its climate agenda on American families,” the lawmakers wrote. “NHTSA’s proposed standards, when coupled with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) distinct, extreme tailpipe emissions proposal, amount to a de facto mandate for electric vehicles (EVs) that threatens to raise costs and restrict consumer choice, harm U.S. businesses, degrade our energy and national security and hand the keys of our automotive industry over to our adversaries, especially China.”
“The proposal issued in July is mere virtue signaling for this administration’s extreme climate agenda, but it would actually have only limited impact on emissions while strengthening foreign adversaries and harming American workers and consumers,” the lawmakers concluded. “We strongly urge NHTSA to drop its attempt at central planning and instead put forth a workable proposal that complies with the law and better serves the American people.”
Click here to read the full letter.
The letter was also signed by Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Congressman Rick Crawford (R-AR).
The lawmakers’ outcry accompanied other elected officials’ pushing back against the EV mandate. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders joined a group of governors in sending a letter earlier this week to President Biden demanding he scale back the directive.
Industry leaders agree this action will prevent Americans from deciding what vehicles best fit their needs.
“The Biden administration is overseeing a whole-of-government campaign to effectively ban new gas, diesel and flex fuel vehicles,” said President and CEO of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) Chet Thompson. “This agenda is bad for American families, bad for our economy and indefensible from a national security perspective. And what’s even more glaring is that both EPA and NHTSA—the agencies spearheading President Biden’s forced electrification agenda—do not have Congressional authorization to regulate internal combustion engine vehicles out of the market. AFPM supports efforts to reduce the carbon intensity of transportation and improve vehicle performance and efficiency for consumers. And unlike the Biden administration’s CAFE proposal, we believe successful, consumer-first policies must encourage real competition among all technologies and powertrains, including American-made, American-grown fuels.
“NHTSA’s proposal, combined with EPA’s proposed tailpipe emissions standards, would result in a de facto ban on the sale of new vehicles using gasoline and other liquid fuels,” said API Executive Vice President & Chief Advocacy Officer Amanda Eversole. “These rules will hurt consumers through potentially higher costs, fewer options and increased reliance on unstable foreign supply chains.
Boozman is a cosponsor of the Choice in Automobile Retail Sales (CARS) Act to counter the Biden administration’s radical environmental agenda and executive overreach by preventing the implementation of a proposed rule and other regulations that seek to limit consumer vehicle choice.
