Op-Ed: Biden’s EV Diktat Will Cost Consumers and Threaten Jobs

This article originally appeared in Daily Caller on June 14, 2023

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced aggressive C02 mandates, with the expressed goal of 67% of all cars having 0% tailpipe emissions in the next seven years. Though all Americans support clean air and clean water, this EPA declaration is a short-sighted sound bite aimed at appealing to some of the Biden Administration’s more progressive critics. Unfortunately, it also presents national security concerns, creates higher costs for U.S. consumers, and threatens jobs for American workers. It does so all for the hidden goal of combating global warming, which analysis show will not occur because these regulations will result in little if any, emissions reduction.

Our Nation’s most significant national security concern is China, and these new regulations will make our economy and society more dependent on China for the materials used in electric vehicles (EVs). The primary components of EV batteries, which include graphite, rare earth minerals, lithium, manganese, and cobalt, are all dominated by Chinese miners and processors. Even if our government removed many burdensome mining regulations, our country still does not possess the domestic natural recourses or an advanced processing industry for minerals. This means that the Biden Administration’s new regulations will both offshore manufacturing jobs to China and give the Chinese a political tool to extract concessions from our government. Imagine the difficult predicament for an administration that is forced to choose between defending international waterways in the South Pacific or securing the critical minerals for driving. As geopolitical competition between our nations intensifies, we must limit our liabilities, not create new ones.

Read full op-ed in Daily Caller