EPA proposes new standards to require two-thirds of new car sales by 2032 be EVs

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced what is being considered its strongest-ever proposed pollution standards for gas-powered vehicles – which if enacted would effectively mandate that 67% of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2032 must be zero-emission ones. 

The rule has been expected for weeks and is a dramatic, proposed increase from President Biden's stated goal of 50% zero-emission passenger car sales – including battery-powered electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles – by 2030. It would also likely and dramatically increase EV sales, which accounted for just 5.6% of new car sales in the U.S. last year, according to Road & Track.com.

The proposal is being praised by those who support a move toward renewable energies and away from vehicles that run on refines fossil fuels and emit carbon dioxide. However, critics of such a transition are raising concerns – including those on the U.S. abandoning its supply of vast natural resources and fewer domestic manufacturing job.  

"Biden's radical EPA is trying to regulate your car's engine into OBLIVION," tweeted GOP Rep. Chip Roy. 

The Texas lawmaker also called on his GOP-led House to "use the power of the purse to END the weaponization of the federal bureaucracy" by "slashing EPA's funding."

Former Trump EPA transition team member Steve Milloy also criticized the proposal as regulatory “tyranny” and said the requirements would be "impossible" to meet.

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