Protecting Consumer Choice in Transportation: Fighting Against Proposed Bans on Internal Combustion
HR1435 Matters to You and Every Small Business in America
The ability to move people and products is foundational to a strong and thriving free market economy. Imagine what would happen in your own life if you could no longer buy a car with an internal combustion engine. Imagine what would happen to your business or your household budget if truck fleets in America could no longer use diesel engines. The effects will be devastating, and will kill our economy.
Now, Take Action to Support Consumer Choice
Contact your Member of Congress today and tell them to support HR1435. You can find your member of Congress’ contact information here (https://www.house.gov/representatives)
Next, reach out to the members of the Rules Committee IMMEDIATELY and tell them to support HR1435. You can find their phone and social media accounts here (https://rules.house.gov/about/rules-committee-members)
You can read the entire HR 1435 legislation here: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/BILLS-118hr1435rh/pdf/BILLS-118hr1435rh.pdf
HR1435 Matters to You and Every Small Business in America
The ability to move people and products is foundational to a strong and thriving free market economy. Imagine what would happen in your own life if you could no longer buy a car with an internal combustion engine. Imagine what would happen to your business or your household budget if truck fleets in America could no longer use diesel engines. The effects will be devastating, and will kill our economy.
What’s Happening with Banning Internal Combustion Engines?
Despite the economic reality The Biden Administration, the State of California, and other states following California’s lead under the Clean Air Act, have proposed, promulgated, and passed policies that ban the internal combustion engine (known as ‘ICE bans’) as soon as 2035. This is done in the name of fighting climate change by pushing the net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Together, the Biden Administration and California want to end the liquid fuels industry in the United States. That includes domestic oil as well as clean, renewable sources of liquid fuels like ethanol and biodiesel. These policies will wreck the transportation economy, and they would wreck the agricultural economy as well.
And the devastating price increases that follow will hurt families, small businesses, and the entire supply chain we rely on in the communities where we all live and work.
California is the only state allowed to set its own standards under the federal Clean Air Act, but other states can opt to adhere to the California standard instead of the federal standard.
Currently, 13 so-called “177 states”—referring to the section of the Clean Air Act—follow California’s existing fuel and vehicle policies. Four more are expected to join for future car-model years. In short, we are talking about 40 percent of the domestic automobile market.
This is not something that we can shrug off simply because the goals being talked about do not kick in until 2035. The real impact on our economy has already started.
Let me give you just a few examples:
In Delaware, just this past May 2023, an auto dealer received a letter from Stellantis, Chrysler’s parent company, which stated that, starting next year, the company could no longer supply the Delaware auto dealer with two popular, gas-powered Jeeps. The reason? Delaware, which adopted California’s first round of fuel policies, is considering adopting the latest round—which includes the ICE ban. Therefore, Delaware is considered a “California state.”
According to Stellantis, the electric Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Grand Cherokee will be available instead. But consider this, according to Kelly Blue Book, the gas-powered, four-door 2023 Wrangler has a sticker price of about $34,135, while the electric 4XE has a starting price of about $54,765.
What does this mean for Delaware and its consumers? To meet the California target by 2035, Delaware’s registered EVs will need to climb from about 4,500 to 257,000 in 2035, a 5,710% increase. Also, the average price of an EV is about $66,000, while Delawareans’ average income in 2020 was $34,513, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Delaware is not alone in this new stocking prohibition for gas vehicles, as New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Colorado (and yes, California) are included due to their adoption of the California standards.
Let me share with you an excerpt from the Stellantis letter:
“The communication to our dealers simply acknowledges the reality that we may need to adjust vehicle allocations among the California and Federal states to ensure that Stellantis complies with different standards in the California states. We will continue to support our dealer network as they work to meet the needs of our consumers during this time, and we will continue to seek a level playing field for our company and our dealers. The ultimate solution rests with a program that allows compliance based on sales in all 50 states.”
Well, Stellantis has it partly right: the solution does rest with a program that allows for compliance—that is, one that rejects not just California’s unachievable and costly standards, but those from the Biden Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)—all of which serve as a national, de facto ban on internal combustion engines and a mandate to purchase electric vehicles.
On top of devastating economic consequences ICE bans will have, do not forget that China dominates the EV supply chain. More than 70% of lithium-ion batteries are produced in China. And China accounts for 50% to 70% of global lithium and cobalt refining. If we turn our backs on liquid fuels, we are trading our liquid fuel security for dependence on China’s EV economy.
Free Market Competition and Consumer Choice
The best way to transition to a cleaner, more efficient, and environmentally friendlier fleet is with free market competition and consumer choice. Free people and competitive markets are the only way to drive real innovation and durable, positive change. Top-down, political and artificial approaches have never worked, and they cannot work in this case either.
Consumers do want clean, efficient, and affordable choices. The competitive market motivates innovators to improve the efficiency and environmental impacts of fuels and vehicles while lowering costs. California’s ban arbitrarily aims to eliminate the most clean and efficient liquid fuels and internal combustion engines ever developed. Rather than eliminating entire vehicle drive trains to support politically favored technologies, consumers should be empowered to make their own transportation purchase decisions.
What Can YOU Do?
Under federal law, in order to impose new standards, California needs a waiver from the Biden EPA.
There is a measure currently before the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 1435, known as the ‘Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act.’ This bill would prevent California, or any other state, from getting the waiver it needs for its internal combustion engine ban.
You can help by contacting your Member of Congress TODAY to tell them to support H.R. 1435.
You can also sign up here to stay updated on efforts to protect consumer choice in transportation and fight back against the proposed bans on internal combustion engines.
Gentry Collins
CEO
American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce
www.AmFreeChamber.com
About theAmFree Chamber and CLA
The American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce (AmFree Chamber) is a national business membership organization supporting American businesses, innovators, and entrepreneurs. AmFree Chamber fights for free people and competitive markets as the best way to improve the lives of all Americans. Former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, the longest serving governor in American history, chairs AmFree Chamber.
AmFree Chamber maintains significant legal capability through our Center for Legal Action (CLA). CLA is built to challenge federal regulatory overreach by providing congressional testimony, initiating litigation, filing amicus briefs, and supporting lawsuits brought by other parties in important regulatory and constitutional cases. It is positioned to be more nimble, more aggressive, and more successful than legacy institutions with legal centers that take years or decades to challenge business-killing regulations.
The Center for Legal Action is chaired by former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr, whom we believe is better positioned than any other American legal mind to chart successful strategies for getting the right cases successfully in front of the Supreme Court.