ANOTHER DELAWARE RADICAL
Senator Tom Carper Proposes EPA Adopt Plan Ending Gas Vehicle Sales By 2035


Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) is urging the U.S. to follow more progressive anti-pollution standards by aiming to end sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

Leigh Vogel/Getty Images Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) questions Neera Tanden, nominee for Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs committee on February 9, 2021 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. In a letter to the EPA, carper is proposing the administration aim to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035.

Carper, who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday saying the administration should follow the standards of a deal brokered between California and automakers to achieve Biden's plan of slashing America's greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

"Strong policies in the United States will encourage those investments to be made here," Carper wrote in the letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan that was obtained by the Associated Press. He cited likely U.S. gains in "research and development, manufacturing and ultimately export opportunities in automotive technology."

Under Carper's proposal, the EPA would apply California's 2019 framework agreement on emissions standards reached between Ford, Volkswagen, Honda, BMW and Volvo. That deal would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 3.7 percent per year from 2022 through 2026, raise fuel economy requirements by a like amount and give automakers credits toward meeting the requirements for selling zero-emissions battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.

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After that, the administration would have to enact much stricter standards to meet Carper's goals. Half of all new vehicles sold would be electric by 2030 and sales of new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles would be banned by 2035.

"If the U.S. does not establish a robust policy that leads to zero-emission vehicle deployment, combined with appropriate incentives, we will be at risk of losing our automotive jobs and industry leadership to other nations, as well as enduring unnecessary public health impacts from pollution," Carper wrote.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

Carper noted that the industry is already moving in the direction of zero-emission electric vehicles and that it's critical to lay markers now to ensure that the U.S. positions itself as a top player in auto manufacturing over foreign competitors such as China.

Carper's push comes as the Biden administration takes steps to reverse former President Donald Trump's bid to end California's ability to set its own automobile tailpipe pollution standards. That move could pave the way for the U.S. to broker an industrywide deal that follows California's agreement, although reaching such an agreement faces challenges.

Most of the rest of the auto industry, for instance, opposed the California deal and sided with Trump in rolling back the standards to a 1.5% increase in fuel economy per year through 2026. In early talks with the Biden administration last month, a coalition of automakers said it wanted mileage standards lower than those brokered by California.

Biden has said he wants stronger standards to deal with the effects of climate change, and in his address to Congress on Wednesday he said the U.S. "can own the electric car market." His climate proposal, however, does not detail the greenhouse gas reductions that his administration envisions for each sector of the economy.

Biden's top climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, appeared to signal that deeper cuts in emissions would have to come from sectors other than the auto industry to reach the goals.

To increase sales of electric vehicles, the administration plans to spend $15 billion to build a half-million charging stations by 2030 as well as offer unspecified tax credits and rebates to cut the cost.

However, experts said it will be difficult to replace the 279 million passenger vehicles now on U.S. roads—most of which burn gasoline—with electric vehicles in less than 15 years. The average U.S. vehicle is now nearly 12 years old, so they stay on the roads longer than in the past. And without an immediate change, the number of gasoline-powered vehicles will continue to grow. IHS Markit predicts it will be 284 million by 2025.

Each year, automakers sell about 17 million new vehicles in the U.S., most of them running on gasoline. If every new vehicle sold were electric starting today, it would take more than 16 years to replace all of the gasoline vehicles.

© Orlin Wagner)/AP Photo In this Monday, April 5, 2021 file photo, a Tesla electric vehicle charges at a station in Topeka, Kan. With strong sales of its electric cars and SUVs, Tesla on Monday, April 26, 2021 posted its seventh-straight profitable quarter. Sen. Tom Carper is proposing to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035. Orlin Wagner)/AP Photo

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