Barron’s Roundtable panelists discuss why some automakers are scaling back their electric vehicle rollout plans.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign argued that the Democratic candidate does not support an electric vehicle mandate, despite her past experience on the issue.
Amar Moosa, emergency management director for the Harris campaign, wrote in an email to Fact Check that Republican Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio “would certainly lie” about wanting to force every American to own an electric car.
“Fact: VP Harris does not support an electric vehicle mandate,” Moussa wrote.
“While Donald Trump vehemently opposed inflation-busting legislation, the Biden-Harris Administration has created tens of thousands of new clean energy jobs in Michigan and provided groundbreaking subsidies and tax credits for electric vehicles.”
Harris’ electric vehicle push takes another blow as automakers pull out: ‘unwanted and unviable’
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks after touring the New Flyer electric bus final assembly plant in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on February 9, 2023. (Glenn Stubb/Star Tribune via Getty Images/Getty Images)
The vice president has long pushed for an electric vehicle mandate, despite attempts by Harris’ campaign to change course.
As a senator, Harris was one of the original co-signers of the Green New Deal, a 2019 initiative by New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Markey that aimed to create a blueprint for transitioning the country to 100% “clean energy” by 2040.
The bill was rejected in the Senate.
Vice President Kamala Harris receives a briefing on electric vehicle investments at the Brandywine Maintenance Facility in Brandywine, Maryland, on December 13, 2021. (Michael Reynolds/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Even after the Biden-Harris ticket won the 2020 election, Harris continued to spearhead climate change efforts, particularly leading the Clean School Bus Program.
The EPA-backed program was created nearly three years ago as a provision in the Biden-Harris administration’s 2021 infrastructure bill, which allocated $5 billion for the program.
The EPA has since provided $1 billion in grants to school districts across the country to equip them with about 2,500 electric school buses.
Vice President Kamala Harris sits in the driver’s seat of an electric bus while touring a manufacturing plant in St. Cloud, Minnesota, on February 9, 2023. (Stephen Maturen/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Ms. Harris and EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan were touted by the federal government as heads of the program, but the Washington Free Beacon reported last month that only 60 battery-electric or low-emission propane-fueled school buses have been delivered.
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“Every day, 25 million children travel on our nation’s largest public transportation vehicle: school buses. The majority of these buses run on diesel fuel, exposing students, teachers and bus drivers to toxic air pollution,” Harris said about the program earlier this year.
“Today, we’re announcing nearly $1 billion to fund clean school buses across the country. As part of our efforts to address the climate crisis, the historic funding we’re announcing today is an investment in our children, their health and their education. It will also strengthen our economy by investing in American manufacturing and the American workforce.”
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at a campaign event at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee on August 20. (Bing Guang/Bloomberg via Getty Images/Getty Images)
Harris was also tasked with leading the Electric Vehicle Charging Action Plan, which was released in December 2021 with the goal of 50% of car sales being electric by 2030.
The Biden-Harris administration will clamp down even harder on that plan this year with one of the most significant climate change regulations in U.S. history, requiring half of new cars and trucks sold in 2030 to be electric.
“Together we’ve made historic progress — hundreds of new factories expanding across the country, hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs created. And we’re meeting our goals for 2030 and making progress in the years ahead,” Biden said of the plan in March.
A $7.5 billion federal program that was part of the 2021 infrastructure bill aimed to install 500,000 EV charging stations across the country, but as of May, only eight federal charging stations had been installed.
The Hummer EV lines up on the production line at an electric vehicle assembly plant in Detroit on November 17, 2021. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo/Reuters Photo)
As Democrats continue to embrace the electric vehicle frenzy, former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, has vowed to end the Biden administration’s “mandate” to increase electric vehicle sales.
“On day one, I will end the electric vehicle mandate, saving the American auto industry from the total annihilation that is currently occurring and saving American customers thousands of dollars per car,” he said at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last month.
President Trump greets Elon Musk (left) at the White House in Washington, DC on February 3, 2017. (Brendan Smiarowski/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
Trump spoke about electric vehicles again earlier this month in an interview with Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, the largest electric vehicle maker in the United States.
While calling Musk’s car “great,” President Trump said fossil fuels are deeply involved in the production of EVs and urged the United States to “dig, dig, dig.”
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FOX Business has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.
Fox News’ Kristen Altas and Eric Revell contributed to this report.
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