via motortrend:
In what some are calling its most drastic cut in emissions to date, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new rules for automakers to meet to reduce the emissions of new vehicles through 2032. The goal, as even President Joe Biden himself has said, is to get more people into electric vehicles and further decarbonize the transportation sector.
As is usual when the EPA sets new, tighter standards, there already is a chorus of critics slamming various aspects of the rules, claiming either they’re not feasible, or they will tank the economy, or give China an edge somehow. Let’s take a step back and see what the proposed rules really are and some of the realities of how the automotive industry already works within our current EPA standards.
New Rules, Who Dis?
There is no hiding what these new EPA rules are trying to do. When it comes to a new car or truck, the Biden Administration wants it to be powered by anything that isn’t carbon-based. Right now, the cleanest form of vehicle power (as determined at the tailpipe, or lack thereof) is, you guessed it, electric, even if it gets its charge from an all-coal sourced form of electrical power generation.
h/t Glenn