Biden Administration violating consumer choice

In the United States, one of our most important freedoms is individual choice. However, the Biden Administration has unmistakably signaled its determination to advance its aggressive climate agenda at any cost — even at the expense of consumer choice — whether it pertains to gas stoves, dishwashers, or even gas-powered vehicles. As this administration continues their unconstitutional efforts to phase out gas vehicles in favor of electric vehicles (EVs), it overlooks a critical factor: the United States currently lacks the necessary infrastructure to ensure the success of this forced transition.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) controls the majority of the world’s minerals and rare Earth elements needed to produce the batteries required to power EVs. In fact, the CCP currently owns 80% of the cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), enabling them to extract raw materials at a minimal cost. Cobalt is an essential element of the most common type of EV battery, and without it, it is incredibly difficult and expensive to manufacture EVs. Among these cobalt mines is the Tenke Fungurume Mine, one of the CCP’s largest and most profitable operations in the region, which previously belonged to the United States until it was sold during the Obama-Biden Administration.

This transaction secured the CCP majority ownership of cobalt in the region and gave them a major geostrategic upper hand, because it ensures that the United States is totally dependent on a foreign adversary to meet the Biden Administration’s EV mandates. The administration has been pushing its extreme EV agenda under the guise of “climate concerns,” but the United States has barely scratched the surface of environmentally friendly. Rather than enabling the United States — which has the world’s most stringent labor and environmental standards — this administration prioritizes meeting domestic climate targets, shifting the responsibility, and emissions, onto overseas manufacturers who have less regulated processes.

In February, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) petitioned the EPA for a special waiver under the Clean Air Act, seeking approval to proceed with a plan aimed at phasing out the sale of gas-only vehicles by 2035. Washington is one of a handful of states that has a trigger law tied to California’s emission standards, which obligates all Washingtonians to abide by policies determined by a different state over 600 miles away. This means that consumers in Central Washington will no longer be able to purchase gas-powered vehicles in a few years.

This misguided decision restricts consumer choice for millions and saddles them with additional costs: EVs are more expensive than gas powered vehicles by a substantial amount. Not to mention, EVs require specialized charging stations. Despite California’s capacity to ensure widespread access to electric charging, rural areas, like those in Central Washington, lack such infrastructure. In cold weather conditions where EV batteries rapidly lose charge, residents will not have adequate access to charging and face an elevated risk of their vehicles dying on the road.

While EVs undoubtedly have a role in the market, mandating their purchase is an encroachment on individual freedoms and consumer choice. Central Washingtonians and the American people are tired of the government trying to overregulate our lives instead of focusing on solutions that will truly benefit our energy future, and instead of picking winners and losers in the auto marketplace by pushing “green policy” initiatives, we should be aiming to bolster domestic mineral mining and refining while this sector is so vulnerable to our adversaries.