The Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives voted to repeal the Biden administration’s tailpipe emissions rule on Friday.
In March, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule on the sale of electronic vehicles, or EVs, that officials called the most ambitious plan ever to cut global-warming emissions from cars.
Under the rule, the auto industry could meet the limits if 56 percent of new vehicle sales are EVs and at least 13 percent of sales are plug-in hybrids or other partially electric cars, as well as more efficient gasoline-powered cars that get more miles to the gallon, by 2032.
This new limit on EV sales would be an exponential increase on current sales, which climbed to 7.6 percent of new vehicles in 2023 compared to 5.8 percent in 2022.
The House resolution to overturn the new tailpipe emissions rule passed 215 to 191 on Friday with eight Democrats voting in favor of it and one Republican, Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, voting against it.
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Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, the 2024 GOP presidential nominee, have criticized the rule, calling it a “mandate.” However, the rule would not force all sales of EVs.
“The EPA’s latest tailpipe emissions rule is not really about reducing air pollution. It’s about forcing Americans to drive electric vehicles,” House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairwoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican, said.
Representative John James, a Michigan Republican who sponsored the resolution, called the EPA’s rule “out-of-touch” and said it would “crater the Michigan auto industry and decimate our middle-class and most vulnerable” citizens.
When the Biden administration finalized the deal in March, President Joe Biden vowed that Americans would make these new EVs.
“U.S. workers will lead the world on autos making clean cars and trucks, each stamped ‘Made in America,'” Biden said. “You have my word.”
The new rule will prevent over 7 billion tons of global-warming carbon emissions over the next three decades and make nearly $100 billion in annual net benefits, according to the EPA, as the rule would lead to lower health care costs, fewer deaths and over $60 billion in reduced annual costs for fuel, maintenance and repairs.
Representative Frank Pallone, a New Jersey Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said the resolution was “yet another Republican effort to attack the Clean Air Act and roll back commonsense air pollution protections.”
He ripped into GOP lawmakers for “failing to be serious about governing or working to implement policies that actually benefit the American people.”
The resolution will almost certainly fail in the Democrat-led Senate and even if it got through the upper chamber, Biden would surely veto it.
Biden, who has championed the fight against climate change during his presidency, called the new rule “historic progress” when it was issued in March.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.