Trump Transition Team Plans To Take A Sledgehammer To Biden Era EV Policies – CleanTechnica

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Reuters says it has seen the proposals the Trump transition team is recommending for the transportation sector, and they include taking the portions of the Inflation Reduction Act that deal with electric vehicles and EV charging infrastructure, ripping them out by the roots, and throwing them in the trash. In addition, the transition team is recommending sweeping changes to strengthen measures that will blocking cars, components, and battery materials from China. The recommendations, which have not been previously reported, come as the US electric vehicle transition stalls and China’s heavily subsidized EV industry continues to surge in part because of its superior battery supply chain.

On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to ease regulations on gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles and roll back what he called Biden’s EV mandate. It was never a mandate at all, but the truth and MAGAlomaniacs have a fraught relationship that allows them to say anything they want and their so-called base will lap it up like a cat with sweet cream. Being incurious and willing to accept every lie and distortion you hear is a hallmark of the Red Hat squadron.

The transition team also recommends imposing tariffs on all battery materials sourced from anywhere outside the United States and then negotiating individual exemptions with allies, the document shows. Taken together, Reuters says, the recommendations are a stark departure from Biden administration policy, which sought to balance encouraging a domestic battery supply chain, separate from China, with a rapid EV transition. The transition team plan would take the money now flowing into building charging stations and making EVs affordable and redirecting it into national defense priorities, including securing supplies and materials needed to manufacture batteries from sources that have not been tainted with the stain of Chinese technology.  It’s the old “yellow peril” trope updated for the 21st century.

Transition Team Shenanigans

The Trump transition team has been assigned the task of crafting a strategy for swift implementation of new automotive policies. The team also calls for eliminating the Biden administration’s $7500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases. If implemented, the changes could substantially impact the production and sale of electric cars in the US at a time when many legacy automakers, including General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis, have committed more than $100 billion to the EV revolution. Hyundai and Kia have also introduced a wide range of electric cars to the US market.

Cutting government EV support could also hurt sales of Tesla, the dominant seller of electric cars in the US, but Elon Musk — who spent more than a quarter of a billion dollars helping to elect Trump — has said that losing subsidies would hurt rivals more than Tesla. Apparently the great and powerful Musk has forgotten that he was once the champion for electric cars and is happy to see his rivals — and the environment — suffer if it means more billions in his pocket.

The transition team calls for clawing back whatever funds remain from Biden’s $7.5 billion plan to build charging stations and shifting the money to battery minerals processing and the “national defense supply chain and critical infrastructure.” While batteries, minerals, and other EV components are “critical to defense production,” electric vehicles “and charging stations are not,” the document says.

The Defense Department — which will soon be headed by Ron DeSantis, who knows as much about running the military as most people know about nuclear fusion — in recent years has highlighted US strategic vulnerabilities because of China’s dominance of the mining and refining of critical minerals, including graphite and lithium needed for batteries and rare earth metals used in both EV motors and military aircraft. A 2021 government report said the US military faces “escalating power requirements” for weapons and communication equipment, among other technologies. “Assured sources of critical minerals and materials” are “critical to U.S. national security,” the report found.

Trump transition team spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said voters gave Trump a mandate to deliver on campaign promises, including stopping government attacks on gasoline-powered cars. “When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas powered cars and electric vehicles,” Leavitt said in a statement.

More Pollution, Fewer Miles Per Gallon

Automakers globally have been shifting toward electric vehicles in part to comply with stricter government limits on climate-damaging tailpipe pollution. But the transition team recommendations would allow automakers to produce more gasoline vehicles by rolling back emissions and fuel economy standards championed by the Biden administration. The transition team proposes shifting those regulations back to 2019 levels, which would allow an average of about 25% more emissions per vehicle mile than the current 2025 limits, and the average fuel economy to be about 15% lower. That is wonderful news for the oil companies that paid big bucks to get Trump elected, but not for people with lungs, as the fine particulates created when gasoline and diesel are burned can cross directly into the bloodstream, causing untold health issues, especially for young children and older Americans.

Naturally, the proposal also recommends blocking California from setting its own more restrictive vehicle emissions standards, which more than a dozen other states have adopted. Trump barred California from setting tougher requirements during his first term, a policy that Biden reversed. California has asked the Environmental Protection Agency for another waiver to incorporate a stronger set of requirements beginning in 2026. Those requirements would eventually lead to all vehicles sold in California to be electric, plug-in hybrids, or hydrogen -powered by 2035. The current EPA has not yet approved California’s request, but this week the US Supreme Court dismissed an appeal by several Red States to force their worldview on the citizens of California. Nothing says “states rights” like barring another state from exercising its best judgement about what is best for its citizens.

Many of the transition team proposals appear aimed at encouraging domestic battery production, primarily for defense-related interests, Reuters says. Others appear aimed at protecting automakers, even those producing EVs, in the United States. The proposals include:

• Instituting tariffs on “EV supply chain” imports including batteries, critical minerals, and charging components. The proposal viewed by Reuters said the administration should use Section 232 tariffs, which target national security threats, to limit imports of such products.
• Waiving environmental reviews to speed up “federally funded EV infrastructure projects,” including battery recycling and production, charging stations, and critical mineral manufacturing.
• Expanding export restrictions on EV battery technology to adversarial nations.
• Providing support for exports of U.S.-made EV batteries through the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
• Using tariffs as a “negotiating tool” to open foreign markets to U.S. auto exports, including EVs.
• Eliminating requirements that federal agencies purchase EVs. A Biden policy requires all federal acquisitions of cars and smaller trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2027.
• Ending DOD programs aimed at purchasing or developing electric military vehicles.

In addition, the Trumpies intend to cancel the contract the US Postal Service signed with Oshkosh Defense to manufacture battery-electric postal vehicles. Can’t have postal workers enjoying better health or postal patrons benefiting from lower operating costs when there are oil companies to protect, now can we? They bought and paid for this new government and expect to reap their just rewards.

You might think most Americans would be upset about rules that will allow new cars to get worse fuel economy. People lose their minds if the price of gas goes up a nickel, but apparently they don’t care a flying fig leaf if they have to buy more gas to keep their chariots running. Logic and common sense have no role to play in the deliberations of the incoming administration or its supporters.