Despite their best attempts to dodge the “ban” label, the Biden administration is pushing to get rid of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles—cars and trucks that run on liquid fuels like gasoline, diesel and flex fuels. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for light-duty vehicles that would require roughly 70 percent of new vehicles sold by 2032—less than 10 years from now—to have “zero tailpipe emissions.” By that arbitrary measure, which ignores all other lifecycle emissions and environmental impacts, only electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles would pass EPA’s tailpipe threshold.
People and outlets across the ideological spectrum—even those favoring EPA’s proposal—see the end game clearly: it’s a de facto ban on internal combustion engine vehicles and, by extension, the American-made liquid fuels they run on. Don’t just take our word for it:
“…EPA’s proposal to tighten tailpipe emissions [is] a regulation designed to ramp up sales of electric vehicles while ending the use of gasoline-powered cars…”
—Coral Davenport, The New York Times
“Let’s call the proposed regulation what it really is: a de facto electric vehicle mandate. Why? Because unless automakers dramatically increase their production of EVs in the years ahead, they’ll have no way of complying with EPA’s ambitious proposed standards.”
—Geoff Cooper, President and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association
“Auto Innovators does not believe [the proposed standards] can be met without substantially increasing the cost of vehicles, reducing consumer choice, and disadvantaging major portions of the United States population and territory… Taken together, the proposed GHG and criteria pollutant standards are so stringent as to set a de facto BEV mandate.”—John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation
“To meet [EPA’s] standard, the car companies will have no choice but to switch most of their products to all-electric models.”
—Star Tribune Editorial Board
“[T]he Environmental Protection Agency plans to announce tough new tailpipe emission standards designed to effectively force the auto industry to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars.”
—Andrew Hawkins, The Verge
“The proposed rule intends to limit the amount of pollution each automaker is allowed to generate, effectively outlawing the internal combustion engine (ICE)–coercing the auto industry into producing more Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and strong-arming consumers into buying them… Due to the speed of the transition to electric vehicles in EPA’s proposal, tens of thousands of America’s best manufacturing jobs are at risk…”
—Anna Fendley, United Steelworkers
“President Joe Biden’s EPA has announced an aggressive new auto tailpipe emissions rule that would ban most new cars and trucks that don’t run on batteries … Is there anything less American than taking away gasoline-powered cars?”
—Travis Fisher, Heritage Foundation Center for Energy, Climate & Environment
The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) is the leading trade association representing the makers of the fuels that keep us moving, the petrochemicals that are the essential building blocks for modern life, and the midstream companies that get our feedstocks and products where they need to go. We make the products that make life better, safer and more sustainable — we make progress.
