Senate President Petersen Files Opening Brief Against Biden-Harris Administration's EPA Over Economically Damaging Electric Vehicle Mandates

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                 

Monday, October 21, 2024

Senate President Petersen Files Opening Brief Against Biden-Harris Administration's EPA Over Economically Damaging Electric Vehicle Mandates

PHOENIX, ARIZONA— Senate President Warren Petersen is challenging the legality of the massive federal government overreach demonstrated by the Biden-Harris Administration's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), after it overstepped its authority in issuing radical and costly electric-vehicle mandates without Congressional approval.

On Wednesday, President Petersen joined a coalition of states and industries in filing an opening brief for a lawsuit in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to stop recently adopted rules by the EPA as part of Biden's climate change agenda. These rules require a hurried transition from gas-powered vehicles to electric vehicles, which will detrimentally transform our nation's entire automotive industry and cost billions of dollars to implement.

The rules require by 2032 nearly 70% of all new vehicles and 25% of all new semitrucks or similar heavy-duty vehicles sold in the United States to be electric, guaranteeing to raise the costs of everything Arizonans purchase, and without adequate charging infrastructure in place or the necessary power grid capacity to accommodate the transition.

Another new rule requires trucking operators to buy expensive electric trucks and retire their diesel-fueled models, which can cost well over $100,000 more per electric truck. The rule applies to any fleets headquartered in Arizona, if they operate within California, which will create dire impacts to the supply chain and dramatically raise costs for Arizona trucking companies that will inevitably be passed onto their customers.

"Our federal government does not have the power to mandate electric vehicles, and their actions show just how out of touch the Biden-Harris Administration is by creating costly policies that will inflict more financial pain on our citizens who have already been burned by skyrocketing costs over the past three-and-a-half years," said Senate President Warren Petersen. "The EPA egregiously overstepped its authority with these arbitrary rules, and the negative impact of forcing industries that every American consumer depends on, to make unreasonable and unattainable changes, will be detrimental to our economy. The Arizona Legislature will continue to hold this Administration accountable and defend our citizens from this big government negligence."

"Hardworking Americans are hurting enough as it is from soaring inflation caused by the Biden-Harris Administration," said Senator Frank Carroll, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology & Missing Children. "The last thing we need is for this Administration to prioritize expensive and scientifically baseless polices all in the name of a radical climate change agenda from Democrats that imposes unattainable goals, which will lead to soaring consumer prices. The average working-class citizen or trucking business will cripple under these mandates and the cost of just about every basic essential will increase exponentially."

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For more information, contact:

Kim Quintero

Director of Communications | Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus

kquintero@azleg.gov