North Dakota leaders slam brakes on push for electric vehicles

Although the Biden administration has the pedal to the metal, electric vehicles appear to be heading nowhere fast in the marketplace. Thousands of layoffs at Tesla, a loss of nearly $350,000 per Lucid vehicle sold this year, more than $100,000 of red ink for every Rivian.

Yet the EPA continues to dream up and impose government regulations designed to leave manufacturers and consumers little choice but to go electric, sooner rather than later. The Forum says the high stakes for North Dakota residents and industry have led both U.S. senators to ramp up their efforts to stop the administration in its tracks.

Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, both Republicans, announced Wednesday, May 1, that they would cosponsor two Congressional Review Act resolutions that would oppose Environmental Protection Agency rules to require two-thirds of new cars and nearly 40% of trucks sold in the U.S. to be electric vehicles in eight years.

“The Biden administration’s commitment to heavy-handed, overreaching regulations leads to higher costs and less choice for American households,” Hoeven said in a statement. “These two rules will not only make inflation worse, but also likely push the cost of new vehicles out of reach for many families and small businesses, resulting older, less efficient vehicles staying on the road longer.”

But ultimately the state’s delegation believes the Biden administration has North Dakota’s fossil fuels in its sights.

Critics have said the efforts will exclude and destroy the coal and oil industries. The electric vehicle rules show that the Biden administration is out of touch with reality, Cramer said in a statement.

“The Biden administration is doing everything in its power to regulate gas vehicles out of existence and push EVs on Americans,” Cramer said. “This EV mandate conveniently ignores the realities that EVs are not ready for mass adoption, and consumers do not even want them. You simply cannot force Americans to want something just because the government decides they should.”

Of course, electric vehicles pose a particular problem in rural states like North Dakota, where residents often need to cover greater distances than the limited range of battery-powered vehicles. The state’s cold winters also hamper the viability of EVs. But none of that matters to the EPA regulators determined to force Americans to turn to EVs.

The EPA does not have the authority to decide what types of vehicles American citizens can drive, Rep. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., told The Forum. He also said the current transmission infrastructure can’t handle the changes, particularly in rural areas where access to electric vehicle charging stations is limited or unavailable.

“There is no concept of how this would work in rural America, and it won’t work in rural America,” he said, adding he would support the resolutions to block the rules.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum also recently helped stall an effort to direct $375,000 from the Renewal Energy Fund to develop a Regional Electric Vehicle Resiliency Plan being touted by the Biden administration. “Electric vehicles and cold temperatures just don’t mix,” Burgum said.