Stopping Biden’s electric-vehicle mandates

Under the Joe Biden administration, purchasing an electric vehicle was not merely a suggestion for Iowa families; it was a de facto mandate.

In 2021, President Biden signed an executive order requiring that 50 percent of new vehicle sales be zero-emission by 2030, officially kick-starting his mission to electrify as many cars, trucks, tractors and semis as quickly as possible.

Later in his term, he pledged that his administration would work toward the full electrification of the federal government’s 650,000-vehicle fleet, approving a waiver allowing California to move forward with its EV mandates on trucks, and his Environmental Protection Agency announced several stringent and unrealistic tailpipe rules that would require 67 percent of new light-duty vehicles and 46 percent of medium-duty vehicles to be electric by 2032.

In one of his final moves before leaving office, President Biden approved another set of waivers paving the way for California to ban the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles by 2035 and imposing unworkable and costly regulations on heavy-duty trucks, in turn, forcing the electrification of semis and other similar vehicles.

Not to mention that one of his landmark pieces of legislation — the ill-named Inflation Reduction Act — established a $7,500 tax credit for EV purchases, giving wealthy Americans in states like California and New York, where EVs are far more prevalent than in Iowa, a significant discount at the expense of taxpayers in rural communities, where the infrastructure and demand for EVs is virtually nonexistent.

Fortunately, with the election of President Donald Trump and Republican majorities in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, the era of big-government mandates and forced vehicle electrification is over.

On his first day in office, President Trump rescinded the previous administration’s EV orders, froze unspent taxpayer funds on EV charging stations, and restored consumer choice in vehicle purchases.

In conjunction with this decisive action, my Republican colleagues and I voted to overturn the three aforementioned waivers that President Biden granted for California on Wednesday April 30. Our work even garnered bipartisan support.

With the average EV priced $14,000 higher than traditional, gas-powered cars, it is never the place of government to put its thumb on the scale, manipulate the market and prevent Americans from choosing the best car or truck that fits their needs.

Even more egregious is that the Biden administration allowed California to skirt the rules, expecting that families and businesses could magically cough up thousands of extra dollars to purchase EVs.

These decisions handicapped farmers and rural Iowa communities and sent a clear message from the Biden administration that it would ignore homegrown Iowa biofuels — a proven, abundant, and American-made solution to strengthen our energy security. For the prosperity of our nation, we cannot let California’s disastrous vehicle and energy policies spread nationwide.

Additionally, last year, in response to these burdensome rules and regulations rolled out by President Biden and his EPA, I teamed up with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in sending two separate letters to Biden officials.

In February of 2024, we led more than 140 of our colleagues in urging the swift withdrawal of an EPA rule that would eventually lead to the end of gas-powered-car sales in the United States.

In July, we also led more than 150 of our colleagues in a letter to then-EPA Administrator Michael Regan urging full repeal of the EPA’s de facto electric mandate on trucks, tractors, buses and semis.

In September, I later voted to overturn the Biden EV mandates, the same mandates that Sen. Crapo and I called to be repealed in February, because we must prioritize affordability and reliability for families, farmers and small businesses.

This year, I further introduced the Comparison of Sustainable Transportation (COST) Act, which would direct the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office and U.S. secretary of energy to compare the financial and environmental costs of replacing the entire federal gasoline-powered vehicle fleet with either electric vehicles or E-85 capable flex-fuel cars and trucks.

This legislation, if law at the time, would have stopped President Biden from unilaterally advancing the electrification of the entire federal vehicle fleet.

While President Trump would never electrify every taxpayer-funded federal vehicle, we need to prevent any future administrations from electrifying the federal fleet with the stroke of a pen.

By promoting flex-fuel vehicles, we can support our farmers and biofuel producers, prioritize homegrown U.S. fuels over foreign batteries and strengthen our strategic position against China.

Although President Biden looked the other way, the reality is that EVs are more expensive and perform far worse in cold weather than their gas-powered counterparts, and the necessary components to build EVs are mainly sourced from China.

We certainly should not force rural Iowans to buy an EV or bankroll the Chinese Communist Party’s mission to undermine the United States and hurt our economy.

These facts should serve as a warning to put an end to any attempt by any government or state to force EVs on consumers — now or in the future.

As Iowa’s voice in Congress, I will continue to work with President Trump to terminate every last remnant of the Biden-era EV agenda, stand up for consumer choice and promote liquid fuels like homegrown Iowa biofuels to lower costs and bolster American energy independence.

This op-ed was originally published in the Northwest Iowa Review on May 29, 2025.