03.19.24

Grassley: Biden Admin’s EV Push Could Drive up the Deficit by $200 Billion

WASHINGTON – Senate Budget Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is amplifying his opposition to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) tailpipe emissions proposal, citing an alarming new cost estimate by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

“The CBO released its ten-year budget and economic outlook on February 7, 2024, which projected a $224 billion increase in the cumulative deficit caused by higher electric vehicle tax credit claims and reduced gas tax revenues. CBO made sure to note that EPA’s market-shifting EV Rule is the largest factor contributing to these revisions,” Grassley wrote in a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan. “The American taxpayers have not voted for and can’t afford the EPA’s proposed EV Rule.”

In addition to raising concerns about the regulation’s fiscal implications, Grassley notes the challenges it poses for auto dealers and questions the grounds EPA has to advance the proposal as written. Grassley is requesting EPA clarify its legal authority for promoting the EV Rule, as well as outline its plans to compensate for the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax revenue and extra spending.

Read Grassley's full letter HERE.

Background: 

The EPA’s EV Rule extends certain greenhouse gas standards to passenger vehicles and light-duty trucks for model years 2023-2026. As a result, EPA projects electric vehicles will account for at least 60 percent of vehicle sales by 2030.

Grassley has persistently pushed EPA to reconsider its EV Rule, writing the agency five times in the last nine months. Grassley has demanded answers from EPA regarding the rule’s potential to make the U.S. more reliant on Chinese lithium-ion batteries and foreign mines that exploit workers. He’s also warned accelerating a mass-scale transition to EVs without the infrastructure to do so threatens the stability of our electric grid. Further exacerbating this problem, EPA issued a contradicting rulemaking to shutter power plants that fail to meet strict emissions caps.

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