EPA “Bets the Farm” on EVs

ACTION ALERT

Kentucky corn farmers are over upset at the EPA’s proposed Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for model year 2027 and later vehicles. This proposed rule effectively mandates the use of electric vehicles instead of working to achieve an environmental goal.

• 67 percent of cars will be battery-powered electric vehicles in the next ten years
• Nearly 50 percent of cars will be battery-powered electric vehicles in the next ten years

Should the U.S. EPA honestly wish to tackle carbon emissions, they should not dictate how regulated parties must achieve the lowered emissions, and they should not dictate the use of a specific fuel or vehicle. Rather, the EPA should set a standard for emissions that opens the marketplace to a broad array of technologies, remove their arcane regulatory barriers, and let the market work its magic.

Impacts of the Rule

• Today an all electric vehicle averages approximately $20,000 more than the average vehicle.
• With the mandated transformation from the gasoline vehicle to the all electric vehicle, gasoline demand will drop along with ethanol demand – equaling about 1 billion bushels in lost corn demand.
• The defacto EV mandate eliminates consumer choice, pushing all Americans to buy EVs even if infrastructure for charging does not exist.
• A forced increase in electric vehicle sales also causes increased dependency on imports of rare minerals and metals for the manufacture of batteries and electronics from countries hostile to the U.S.
• Enormous new investments will have to be made in establishing charging stations, upgrading the electrical grid and distribution, and increasing investment in new electrical generation capacity as EPA closes existing fossil fuel-based power plants.

Summary

The EPA has not reviewed all factors in this proposal. Though the concept of an electric vehicle has been established, the ability to transition all vehicles on the road to fully electric technology is not a given. The problems begin with finding the raw materials to manufacture the millions of vehicles needed for the market. Supporting infrastructure, especially recharging infrastructure, is a daunting task. The high density of chargers needed in major metropolitan areas and how to establish access to chargers in the vast rural areas of the country call for tremendous planning and investment. And, the electricity will mostly be produced by natural gas and coal. In the end, will the customer buy an electric vehicle?

There are multiple compatible pathways to achieve the very aggressive emission standards that have been proposed by EPA, yet the agency has largely elected to focus on the battery-electric vehicle path and is ignoring other solutions that could be delivered immediately.

In doing so, the EPA “bet the farm” on one technology solution and failed to properly consider other technologies that are capable of reducing GHG emissions at scale.

What’s Next?

• Submit your coments to the EPA by July 5
• Your organization is investigating how to challenge the EPA on this final rulemaking.
• A legislative fix, passed by Congress, could establish a new low carbon fuel standard, establish a greenhouse gas reduction goal, and then step back and let the market work to make our transportation sector greener and more efficient. That bill is called the NEXT GENERATION FUELS ACT

For More Information

Contact Adam Andrews at 502-974-1121 or adam@kycorn.org