House Republicans have once again tried to pass a bill that will increase emissions and cost Americans trillions of dollars in additional fuel and health care costs.
The bill in question is H.R.4468, the “CARS” bill. It was introduced by Representatives Tim Walberg (R-MI) and Andrew Clyde (R-GA). It passed the House on Wednesday by a vote of 221-197, with 216 Republicans and 5 Democrats voting to poison you and cost you trillions of dollars, and 197 Democrats and zero Republicans voting to protect you from pollution and save you money.
The legislation, which has yet to be voted on in the Senate and will be vetoed by President Biden if it reaches his desk, seeks to block implementation of the EPA’s new emissions rules, which will prevent nearly 10 billion tonnes of emissions and save Americans trillions of dollars in health and fuel costs if implemented.
The rules will save the average consumer $12,000 over the average life of a vehicle, not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars in health and climate benefits.
The emissions rules were published in April and since then the EPA has been taking public comments and considering more or less stringent alternatives, culminating in a final implementation of the rule early next year.
Various lobby groups have weighed in in the meantime, with the Alliance for Automotive Innovation (AAI) wrongly calling the rules “neither reasonable nor achievable”. The AAI represents almost all the major car manufacturers – many of which, like Ford and GM, have claimed to be fully committed to electric vehicles, yet are supporting a group that is lobbying for worse emissions standards.
The few companies that aren’t members of the AAI tend to be the all-electric carmakers, who are already well on track to meet the regulation’s 2032 target almost a decade early, showing that the target is indeed achievable, contrary to the AAI’s false claim. These carmakers have been much more sensible in calling for stronger, not weaker, action.
Meanwhile, environmental and health groups – representing doctors and people with lungs (that’s you) rather than polluters – have applauded the EPA’s proposed standards.
And Walberg, in defending his assault on Americans’ lungs and pocketbooks, said: “While electric vehicles may play a large role in the future of the auto industry, Washington should not ignore other technologies like hydrogen, hybrids and the internal combustion engine.
However, Walberg shows that he does not understand the regulations in question, because the proposed EPA regulation actually does nothing of the sort. All it does is mandate a certain level of emissions from vehicles, and automakers are free to use whatever technologies they want to achieve that level of emissions.
If they can achieve reasonably low levels of pollution with internal combustion engines, they are free to use them. And if hybridisation or hydrogen can do more than internal combustion engines, and if they can get consumers to actually want to buy cars with those technologies, then they are free to use those technologies as well.
The EPA standards have been described as “technology agnostic” in that they don’t prescribe a particular path to achieving the emissions targets, they simply set the targets themselves.
This shows a lack of understanding on the part of the bill’s author and the hundreds of Republicans (and 5 Democrats) who voted for it, telling people who understand the problem (the EPA) that they have to stop doing something they aren’t even doing. The direction the bill gives the EPA directly contradicts the other mandate the House has already given it – to protect clean air – through the Clean Air Act, which is what led the EPA to propose these standards in the first place.
This action is just the latest in a long recent history of the US Republican Party attacking clean air and working to increase the cost and reduce the ability of consumers to choose a cleaner vehicle or live in a world where pollution is not forced upon them.
Just last week, Ohio Republicans joined US House Republicans in attempting to overturn California’s pollution standards – another attack on the very same “states’ rights” they often claim to believe in.
Earlier in the same lame-duck session, House and Senate Republicans voted on a bill to overturn the EPA’s first truck soot rule in two decades, which they knew would never become law, but which they still wanted to send a message – to let you know that if they ever get into power, they’ll be chomping at the bit for any chance to poison you.
This new bill will now go to the Senate, where it may or may not get a vote, and will be vetoed by President Biden if it reaches his desk. Lacking a veto-proof majority, it is dead on arrival – merely a statement by House Republicans that they want to increase pollution and costs for Americans at a time when we desperately need a reduction in both. When people show you who they are, believe them.
