The House voted to block the new EPA emissions standards that would have forced automakers to sell two-thirds of all new cars by 2032 to be electric.
The bill passed with eight Democrats voting with all Republicans.
The EPA's final rule on emissions was published in March. At the time, the Washington Post said the rule will be “the most aggressive emissions restrictions on the auto industry in U.S. history.” In actuality, it would have made gas-powered cars almost as expensive as EVs.
By adding thousands of dollars to the cost of a new gas-powered car, the Biden-Harris administration is trying to force the American people to buy EVs. In effect, it's a mandate in disguise.
“The Biden administration is trying to bend every federal rule they can find to force people into buying EVs,” said Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Center for Energy and Environment. “There is still a market that allows drivers to buy the vehicles of their choice, but government coercion is rapidly limiting those choices.”
Congress exercised its power under the Congressional Review Act (CRA), passed in 1996, to veto the new EPA standards. The CRA allows Congress to exercise a veto within a set time period after the final rule is published. It now moves on to the Senate, and after that, it would need to be signed by the president.
It's very possible that the clock will run out on the CRA before the Senate acts, meaning that Republicans could reintroduce the veto challenge in the next Congress
"The Biden-Harris Administration’s EPA tailpipe emission rule is another out-of-touch regulation that will crater the Michigan auto industry and decimate our middle-class and most vulnerable," James said in a press release after the bill passed. "This is a de-facto electric vehicle mandate that will put all 77,580 manufacturing jobs in MI-10 at great risk of extinction. I am grateful that the House passed this measure to prevent the Biden-Harris administration’s rule from ravaging the livelihoods of thousands in Michigan and across the country."
The bill's passing comes just one day after the American Energy Alliance and over two dozen energy groups sent a letter to members of Congress urging them to pass the CRA.
"This rule on tailpipe emissions standards is a massive overreach, using a novel application of EPA motor vehicle authorities in an attempt to force a transition in the motor vehicles market to products that align with the ideological preferences of the Biden administration," the groups wrote in a letter to lawmakers on Thursday.
The bipartisan legislation is being mirrored in the Senate by Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., who introduced the chamber's CRA version in May.
"Vice President Harris made it clear from the start that one of her top priorities is mandating electric vehicles and getting rid of combustion engines, and like she said, her values haven’t changed. The Biden-Harris EPA continues to place extreme standards on pollutants and greenhouse gasses for vehicles in an attempt to make Americans to switch to EVs, taking away consumer choice, forcing unaffordable options on American families and workers, and crushing jobs," Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., said in a press release following the vote.
This is one more reason why Republicans need to take control of the Senate and the White House. We can expect a flurry of new regulations to drop between now and the end of Biden's presidency. That's what happened when Bill Clinton was leaving office. Regulations are a lot harder to overturn once the time period for challenging them has expired.
