Harris insists she ‘will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.’ The Harris of 2020 felt differently.
Democratic politicians are distancing themselves from the Biden administration’s electric-vehicle push to prevent the unpopular slate of subsidies and environmental regulations from tipping Michigan to their Republican opponents.
Addressing rally-goers in Flint, Mich., earlier this month, Kamala Harris insisted that the Trump campaign is misrepresenting her record on electric-vehicle mandates.
“Michigan, let us be clear: Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting, I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive,” Harris said, reversing her past support for banning gas-powered vehicles.
As a senator, Harris co-sponsored legislation introduced by Senator Jeff Merkley (D., Ore.), the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act of 2019, designed to transition the U.S. economy to electric vehicles by 2040. The legislation would require 50 percent of new-vehicle sales to be “zero-emission” cars by 2030 and all new-vehicle sales to be emission-free cars by 2040.
Merkley’s legislation was part of the climate plan Harris proposed during her failed 2020 presidential campaign. Her plan sought to phase out gas-powered-vehicle sales by 2035 as part of a broader goal of creating a “carbon-neutral” U.S. economy by 2045.
Harris’s climate initiative would have developed an “accelerated model of Senator Merkley’s Zero-Emission Vehicles Act, we will ensure that 50 percent of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100 percent are zero-emission by 2035,” an archived version of Harris’s campaign website says.
The specific provisions of her plan included cash incentives for replacing existing cars with electric vehicles and adopting a tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases. Paired with the spending would have been increased federal fuel-economy regulations intended to lower emissions, and federal investments in electric-charger infrastructure.
Summarizing the plan, Harris’s 2020 campaign called for enacting a “Green New Deal” and “accelerating the spread of electric vehicles” to build a green economy.
Michigan polling averages show Harris and former president Donald Trump virtually tied with less than a month to go until Election Day. In a similar fashion, Representative Elissa Slotkin (D.) is leading former representative Mike Rogers by a few percentage points for Michigan’s open Senate seat.
Slotkin launched a new advertisement earlier this month touting her opposition to electric-vehicle mandates, despite her past record to the contrary.
“No one should tell us what to buy, and no one is going to mandate anything,” Slotkin says, accompanied by the words “no electric vehicle mandates” on the screen.
She released the ad right after voting against Representative John James’s (R., Mich.) measure in September cutting back the Biden administration’s environmental regulations designed to boost electric-vehicle sales.
“These mandates have never been popular with regular people. And now that politicians like Harris and Slotkin are outside the beltway, rubbing shoulders with everyday consumers, and hearing about the disastrous effects of these mandates, reality is sinking in,” said O. H. Skinner, executive director of Alliance for Consumers.
A recent Quinnipiac poll of 1,007 likely Michigan voters found that 57 percent opposed government incentives to encourage electric-vehicle purchases.
Of those surveyed, 58 percent of independents and 91 percent of Republicans were against the electric-vehicle incentives. On the other hand, 68 percent of Democrats favored electric-vehicle handouts.
Another recent poll from the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers found that 57 percent of Michigan voters were against a mandate requiring 70 percent of new cars to be electric or hybrid by the year 2032. Those results were nearly identical among respondents in Montana, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers is a fossil-fuel trade association and launched advertisements in August bashing Harris’s past stances on phasing out gas-powered vehicles.
“Kamala Harris’s recent backtracking on EV mandates is yet another example of political maneuvering in response to shifting voter sentiments. Despite her current claim, she played a key role in advancing these mandates by casting the tie-breaking vote for the Inflation Reduction Act, which promotes a rapid transition to electric vehicles,” said American Energy Institute CEO Jason Isaac.
“This is similar to Rep. Elissa Slotkin’s pivot: while running for Senate in a swing state, Slotkin slammed EV mandates despite having recently voted against a bill designed to block them, given that the mandates threaten over 400,000 jobs in Michigan alone. Harris and Slotkin’s records reflect a disconnect between their rhetoric and past support for aggressive EV policies.”
The Biden administration’s electric-vehicle mandate is composed of ultra-stringent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on gas-powered cars and subsidies for companies and consumers looking to switch over to electric vehicles. Automakers have responded accordingly and attempted to built out their electric-vehicle fleets, with some large industry players suffering significant losses as demand falters.
“The Biden-Harris EPA’s vehicle rules reverse engineer an electric vehicle mandate by setting standards so stringent that no conventional vehicles — even hybrids — can meet them,” said Michael Buschbacher, a regulatory expert and partner at Boyden Gray PLLC.
“As those standards ramp up, the only way automakers can comply is to make and sell more plug-in battery vehicles or to buy regulatory ‘credits’ from competitors that do. EPA projects automakers will need to make 68% of their new vehicles battery models by model year 2032 — roughly seven years from now.”
Attempting to capitalize on hostility to electric vehicles, the Trump campaign is putting $1 million into airing an ad in Michigan hitting Harris on her “crazy but true” support for phasing out gas-powered cars.
“Attention auto workers: Kamala Harris wants to end all gas powered cars,” the advertisement warns, before blaring headlines about layoffs in Michigan.
Trump and Harris are both courting blue-collar workers in Michigan and other rust-belt states essential for winning this November. Harris has also walked back her past support for a ban on fracking, knowing that the energy sector is a crucial aspect of Pennsylvania’s economy.