While the Biden administration cannot force you to buy an electric car, it can, by capping tailpipe emissions and other coercive measures, compel producers to severely curtail the manufacturing of internal combustion engine (ICE) cars and drive up the cost of gasoline-powered cars. This will likely result in a fundamental restructuring of America’s automotive industry, which accounts for about 3 percent of U.S. GDP and employs more than 1.7 million Americans.
The Biden administration’s auto industrial policy features a combination of ever-tightening emissions regulations, subsidies to electric vehicle (EV) auto manufacturers, and government payments to EV consumers. The Infrastructure Law, passed in 2021, featured $25 billion for things like charging stations, EV production, and mining. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act doled out billions more in subsidies, and several European countries and U.S. states have banned or plan to ban the sale of new ICE vehicles over the next several years….