Van Orden, House, Senate Colleagues Call for Biden Administration to Withdraw Electric Vehicle Mandate
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congressman Derrick Van Orden (WI-03), along with a bicameral group of 120 colleagues, sent 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.”
“The Biden administration’s electric vehicle mandate is wildly out of touch with American consumers, current technology limits, and the capacity of our electric grid,” said Congressman Van Orden. “Many Americans cannot afford an electric vehicle, and they are unreliable in cold weather states like Wisconsin. Additionally, I have been sounding the alarm for months on the use of child slaves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt, a key mineral used to make lithium-ion batteries for EVs. Despite these very real concerns, the administration continues to put their extremist climate agenda first. This must be stopped.”
Click here to read the full letter to NHTSA Deputy Administrator Shulman.
In September 2023, Rep. Van Orden questioned Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on the use of child slavery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mine cobalt for electric vehicle batteries. Click here to watch.