By John Bozzella
The House is set to vote on a Congressional Review Act resolution that effectively repeals California’s Advanced Clean Cars II rule.
It should pass because thousands of American auto jobs and millions of units of U.S. auto production are at stake. (I explain below).
ACC II is the program – approved by the Biden administration’s EPA – that permits California and affiliated states (30+ percent of the U.S. auto market) to ban the sale of new gas vehicles and mandate 100 percent electric vehicle sales by 2035.
Every member of Congress – left/right; red/blue; EV fans or haters; whether they represent a ‘California’ state or not – should back this repeal.
(By the way, here’s a list of those states: Oregon, Washington, New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Maryland, Colorado, Delaware and New Mexico).
I’ve warned that achieving the EV sales requirements of the California program – 35 percent EV sales in model year 2026 (this calendar year!) – 43 percent in 2027, 51 percent in 2028, 82 percent in 2032 and 100 percent in 2035... will take a miracle.
‘California’ states lack sufficient EV customers.
‘California’ states lack sufficient EV charging infrastructure.
Another reason Congress should intervene?
These EV sales requirements will result in a major loss of auto industry jobs and vehicle production in the coming years.
In 2023, the Center for Automotive Research looked at the Biden EPA’s proposed greenhouse gas emissions regulations that called for 68 percent battery electric vehicles in 2032.
CAR compared that proposal against an alternate regulation with a more moderate reduction in emissions targets that permitted the sale of hybrids.
CAR’s model found that by 2032 under the original Biden proposal:
Internal combustion engine vehicle production dropped a cumulative 8 million units.
Overall auto production in the U.S. (including EVs) fell by 4.6 million units.
Net jobs lost? 120,000.
Those Biden regulations set emissions and fuel economy targets for automakers to achieve.
The California rules take a different approach and mandate the sale of a specific device (in this case zero emission vehicles) between now and 2035.
Still, if you care about a healthy, competitive auto industry in America, the CAR analysis is instructive.
It shows that an aggressive regulatory push toward battery electric vehicles – ahead of consumer demand and without market readiness – will reduce U.S. vehicle production and auto jobs versus a more balanced approach that prioritizes and preserves vehicle choice.
So even if you don’t represent a ‘California’ EV mandate state but build vehicles and employ auto workers in your state (Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Indiana, for example) you ought to support a pause in these unachievable regulations.
Vote yes on the CRA resolution and restore a degree of balance to vehicle emissions regulations in the U.S.
John Bozzella is president and CEO of Alliance for Automotive Innovation.