EDITORIAL: New EPA rule is just politics at play

The political season always seems to bring out the extreme, and such is the case with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new vehicle standard that is aimed at reducing carbon emissions.

While the end goal may be right, the timing certainly isn’t, and it appears to be just another attempt by President Joe Biden’s administration to attempt to issue mandates that are geared toward winning votes instead of instilling sound policy that reaches those goals in a reasonable time frame.

The agency’s national pollution standards apply to passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and medium-duty vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032 and beyond.

The EPA claims that more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions will be avoided, providing nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society. It also claims the new standard will increase auto manufacturing employment.

Many of those claims stem from the regulations that attempt to force more and more automobile manufacturers to focus on electric vehicles, which ultimately will drive up costs and limit choices by consumers.

Because of those concerns, we agree with West Virginia’s leaders, who criticized the standards as too much government overreach. They also correctly question whether the use of electric vehicles is even doable in such an aggressive time frame.

“The federal government has no authority and no right to mandate what type of car or truck Americans can purchase for their everyday lives,” said US Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. “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.”

Fellow US Senator Shelley Moore Capito questioned whether the country’s power grid could even support the move to EVs.

“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 baseload electricity these vehicles will rely on.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said that while the final standards are being implemented more gradually, he believes the country isn’t ready to reach the standard even when considering the slower time frame.

“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,” he said.

US Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., was direct in his assessment, calling it “death by regulation.”

“Today’s announcement of new tailpipe emission standards is death by regulation for gas-powered cars,” Mooney said. “West Virginians love to drive and are dependent on gas-powered vehicles to navigate our great state. President Biden continues to act as a dictator — forcing an extreme left-wing mandate by executive fiat.”

While the state’s representatives’ comments also are tinged with politics as well — especially Morrisey’s and Mooney’s — we do believe they more align with the reality faced by the majority of West Virginia residents and businesses. For that matter, we would argue that the same is true in many other states, especially the more rural ones.

At some point, as technology advances and more usable and affordable EVs become available, their use will become more mainstream.

But the nation’s power grid and economy aren’t ready to sustain that at this time — or within the expedited Biden administration’s time frame.

Once again, when a more measured policy could bring more people into the fold and serve to unite us, the need to stir political emotions has trumped good governance.