West Virginia officials raise concerns about new EV rules

CHARLESTON — A new rule by President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency aimed at increasing the numbers of electric vehicles on the road has several of West Virginia’s political leaders shocked.

On Wednesday, the EPA announced its final pollution standards for commercial vehicles, passenger vehicles, and light and medium-duty vehicles affecting models to be built between 2027 and 2032. The standards are aimed at encouraging the production of more efficient gasoline-powered vehicles, as well as hybrid gas-electric vehicles and full-electric vehicles.

“With transportation as the largest source of U.S. climate emissions, these strongest-ever pollution standards for cars solidify America’s leadership in building a clean transportation future and creating good-paying American jobs, all while advancing President Biden’s historic climate agenda,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan in a statement.

“President Biden is investing in America, in our workers, and in the unions that built our middle class and established the U.S. auto sector as a leader in the world,” said Ali Zaidi, the national climate advisor to the Biden administration. “The President’s agenda is working. On factory floors across the nation, our autoworkers are making cars and trucks that give American drivers a choice — a way to get from point A to point B without having to fuel up at a gas station.”

The new rule sets emission standards for vehicles built between 2027 and 2032, encouraging the automobile industry to implement new technologies and emission control systems in vehicles to curb carbon output. According to the EPA, the new rules would eliminate more than 7 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions and provide more than $100 billion in various estimated societal benefits, including $13 billion in annual health benefits and $62 billion in reduced fuel costs.

The main goal of the rule, which is supported by the United Automobile Workers union, is to increase the manufacturing and purchasing of electric vehicles in order to meet the new ambitious standards. According to the EPA, the standards can be met if 56% of all vehicle sales by 2032 are electric vehicles and 13% of sales are hydrids.

Speaking Thursday afternoon to reporters in a virtual briefing from her offices on Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said the rules were meant to force the public to purchase electric vehicles.

“What they are aiming the American consumer to — the West Virginia consumer — is … that the companies produce these vehicles and that we buy them,” Capito said. “Since when is the federal government telling us what we can and cannot buy in terms of our vehicles? It’s obviously a green push again here.”

In a separate statement released Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., agreed with Capito’s concerns about the Biden administration interfering with the free market and creating unreasonable incentives for consumers to purchase electric vehicles.

“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.”

According to the Associated Press, the number of electric vehicle sales in 2023 was 7.6%, up from 5.8% in 2022. According to 2022 data from the U.S. Department of Energy, more than 903,000 electric vehicles registrations were in California, far surpassing other states. West Virginia only saw 1,870 electric vehicles registered that year.

“In West Virginia alone, the new vehicles sold that were electric — strictly electric — was 1.1%, yet we’re going to get to 70% in eight years? That’s laughable,” Capito said. “I don’t know how they would achieve it anyway, because of the strains on the grid…If we move this 70% electric vehicles, the strain on our electric grid is unsustainable.”

According to ChargeHub, there are more than 30 cities in West Virginia with publicly available charging stations for electric vehicles. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, negotiated in part between the White House and Capito, included $7.5 billion to expand EV charging station infrastructure nationwide, but Capito said the implementation is slow.

“It’s been a very slow deployment, which shows me again, the hypocrisy of the administration,” Capito said. “We’re going to have EVs, we’re going to charge everywhere, but we’re going to create such bureaucratic and regulatory difficulties that you’re not going to be able to move forward with this … I question whether there will be the infrastructure by 2032 at the rate they’re going now.”

The new rule was also opposed by other state leaders, including U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., and Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who both released statements Wednesday.

“President Joe Biden’s radical EPA is at it again,” said Mooney, a Republican candidate for U.S Senate. “Today’s announcement of new tailpipe emission standards is death by regulation for gas-powered cars. 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.”

“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,” said Morrisey, a Republican candidate for governor of West Virginia. “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.”