President Joe Biden’s plan to increase the sales of electric vehicles, according to Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), will only increase American dependence on China for rare earth elements.
According to the New York Times, the Biden administration will propose strict guidelines for reducing vehicle emissions, mandating that by 2030, at least 54% of new cars produced in America must be electric.
By 2032, two-thirds of all new passenger vehicles and one-quarter of all trucks sold in America will be expected to be electric, according to a news statement from Braun’s office.
In a written statement, Braun, who will be running for governor in 2024, said:
“President Biden and his EPA are putting forward irrational emission rules in an effort to drive the population past their comfort zones. The reality of our supply chain and energy infrastructure completely contradicts this strategy, which would increase American dependence on China for raw rare earth minerals that the Biden team forbids being mined domestically. I owned and operated a shipping and transportation company for 37 years, so I am aware of how expensive things will become if the government gets too intrusive.”
The leader of the Senate Republican Conference, Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), said that Biden is attempting to outlaw the “cars we drive.”
“The electrification of everything is not the answer,” according to Barrasso.
“It’s a path to greater pricing and fewer options,” he continued.
Politico outlined the many obstacles that still stand in the way of the majority of Americans driving just electric cars:
“The United States still lacks a significant number of chargers for all the electric cars that the EPA wants to see on the roads. And as David Ferris recently reported for POLITICO’s E&E News, many chargers on the market have issues including poor charging and malfunctions.”
“There are also concerns over whether the American electric grid can handle the demand of charging such a large number of vehicles and whether local mining and manufacturing can scale up quickly enough to ensure that EVs are manufactured domestically.”
Because electric vehicles have caught fire, particularly Tesla models, they have garnered media attention.
One Tesla vehicle needed 4,500 gallons of water to put out the flames in June 2022.
