Trump Destroys Biden’s EV Plans with Sweeping Executive Order

Trump Destroys Biden’s EV Plans with Sweeping Executive Order

Decarbonization is not a priority for President Donald J. Trump, who took the oath of office for his second term this week, on January 20, 2025. On that day, Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement again, and one of the orders he signed wiped out more than 78 decarbonization and EV-friendly actions taken by the Biden administration.

This driver is charging a fully electric Chevrolet SUV, the 2025 Blazer, which Chevy says gets over 330 miles per charge. (Photo courtesy General Motors/Chevrolet)

The goal of the Trump administration is to undo as many environmental and subsistence use protections enacted by President Joe Biden and his administration as possible, meanwhile opening more of Alaska for resource extraction and regulating in industry’s best interest.

Congratulating the new Republican president on his inauguration, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, also a Republican, said, “It was an honor to witness President Trump take the oath of office and to celebrate the start of what promises to be a transformative administration for both Alaska and the country. President Trump’s bold vision for American energy independence, responsible resource development, and reducing federal barriers aligns with Alaska’s strengths and priorities. With his leadership, we can unlock Alaska’s vast potential to fuel the nation and create jobs for our people.”

But Carole Holley, managing attorney for the Alaska Office of Earthjustice, a national public interest law firm, has reason to resist the Trump-Dunleavy approach. “Alaska is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet, a trend that is wreaking havoc on communities, ecosystems, fish, wildlife, and ways of life that depend on healthy lands and waters,” Holley said.  “That reality requires us to create economic opportunities that respect the lands and people of Alaska and benefit all.”

“The Trump administration’s agenda for Alaska would destroy valuable habitats and subsistence hunting and fishing grounds while furthering the climate crisis. Earthjustice and its clients will not stand idly by while Trump once again forces a harmful industry-driven agenda on our state for political gain and the benefit of a wealthy few,” Holley asserted.

EV Limitation Top-of-Mind for President Trump

Some of the first words out of the new president’s mouth on January 20 were aimed at electric vehicles. In his Inauguration Address, President Trump said, “With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers. In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago.”

During the speech, General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who has overseen the investment of billions of dollars to develop their electric vehicles, posted on social media, “Today we congratulate President Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and their new administration. General Motors looks forward to working together on our shared goal of a strong U.S. automotive industry.”

GM reported on January 3 that 2024 was the automaker’s best year for EV sales. For the year, GM sold 114,432 EVs, a 50 percent gain over 2023.

While the Trump revealed big plans to block electric vehicles in his executive orders, many of those actions cannot be made unilaterally by a president without cooperation from government agencies, Congress, or other authorities.

Some of his actions will include a public process in which all Americans, including Alaskans, will be able to express their views.

'Unleashing American Energy'

President Trump opens his executive order entitled “Unleashing American Energy,” by ignoring President Biden’s soaring job growth and low unemployment rate, and blaming Biden, for burdening resource-rich Americans with “ideologically motivated regulations [that] have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens.”

“These high energy costs devastate American consumers by driving up the cost of transportation, heating, utilities, farming, and manufacturing, while weakening our national security,” Trump declared in his order.

But the U.S. Energy Information Agency (EIA), a federal government body, reported different facts in October 2024.

“THE INCREASE IN ENERGY PRODUCTION OVER THE LAST TWO DECADES HAS TURNED THE UNITED STATES INTO THE WORLD’S LARGEST CRUDE OIL AND NATURAL GAS PRODUCER TODAY AND FROM A NET ENERGY IMPORTER TO A NET ENERGY EXPORTER STARTING IN 2019. THE MAIN DRIVER OF THIS SHIFT HAS BEEN FROWING EXPORTS CRUDE OIL AND PETROLEUM PRODUCTS AND LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS (LNG) OVER THE LAST 15 YEARS.” – U.S. Energy Information Agency

Biden has been president for four of the last 15 years and vice president under President Barack Obama for eight of those years – largely responsible for elevating the United States to the position of world’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer in January 2025.

Yet, U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing is on the increase, although EV sales were reportedly sluggish in 2024. EV automakers in the United States include: Cadillac Celestiq, GMC Hummer EV Pickup, Hummer EV SUV, Lucid Air, Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV, Rivian R1S and R1T, Tesla Cybertruck, Chevrolet Silverado EV, and the GMC Sierra EV, among others.

There are 269 hybrid and electric vehicle manufacturing businesses in the United States as of 2024, an increase of 11.6 percent from 2023, according to IBISWorld, an Australian industry research specialist group with global reach.

Nevertheless, offshore oil drilling is in now, and ocean safeguards are out. The Trump administration is seeking to reverse protections of offshore waters from oil-and-gas drilling enacted and reaffirmed under President Biden. These protections, in line with the two-thirds of American voters who support protecting coastlines from new offshore drilling, include public waters off the Atlantic, Pacific, Alaska, and Gulf coasts.

Trump’s order prioritizes the development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG), including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG to other regions of the United States and allied nations within the Pacific region, as well as the permitting of all necessary pipeline and export infrastructure related to the Alaska LNG Project. The estimated $40 billion price tag for all this infrastructure is nothing to the costs of its climate impact on the planet.

The need to unleash more American oil from the fragile, fast-warming Arctic has already been met with production elsewhere, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

In its November 2024 “Oil Market Report,” the IEA said, “…world oil supply is rising at a healthy clip. Following the early November US elections, we continue to expect the United States to lead non-OPEC+ supply growth of 1.5 million barrels per day (mb/d) in both 2024 and 2025, along with higher output from Canada, Guyana and Argentina.”

Challenged by unscheduled outages and underperformance in 2024, this year Brazil is expected to be “a major source of growth,” the IEA said. Latin America’s largest producer is forecast to boost supply by 210 thousand barrels per day (kb/d) to 3.7 mb/d in 2025, as more than 800 kb/d of new capacity starts up. Total growth from the five American producers will more than cover expected demand growth in 2024 and 2025.”

Electric Vehicles Out of Favor

President Trump’s “Unleashing American Energy” executive order strips away the incorrectly termed “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” that Biden is blamed for establishing, and promotes what Trump calls, “true consumer choice,” which is “essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access; by ensuring a level regulatory playing field for consumer choice in vehicles; by terminating, where appropriate, state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles; and by considering the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill-conceived government-imposed market distortions that favor EVs over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase by individuals, private businesses, and government entities alike by rendering other types of vehicles unaffordable,” President Trump ordered on Day One.

Language in this order and in others issued by Trump on Monday point to his desire to repeal a $7,500 tax credit for new EV purchases approved by Congress as part of Biden’s landmark 2022 climate law. He also wants to roll back Biden-era Environmental Protection Agency rules that tighten limits on greenhouse gas emissions and other emissions from passenger and freight vehicles.

Trump also wants to end a federal exemption that allows the State of California to phase out the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035, a waiver that is important also to the more than a dozen other states that follow California’s out-front vehicle emissions standards.

The Chevrolet website carries this warning on its page featuring the 2025 Blazer, an electric SUV. “Tax credit subject to change. Your personal eligibility to claim this tax credit depends on your individual circumstances, including whether your adjusted gross income for the current or preceding taxable year exceeds the income thresholds contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). You should consult your tax, accounting or legal professional to confirm your eligibility or if you have questions regarding this tax credit. This information does not constitute tax, accounting or legal advice. For information about the IRA’s federal tax credit, please visit: https://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/tax2023.shtml.”

Trump’s order parallels his roll-back of strict vehicle emissions standards set under the predecessor to his first term, then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, as is President Biden.

Leading up to the election, Trump became friends with Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and he appeared to temporarily show some understanding of EVs. Musk is now heading Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency.

But in this sweeping executive order, Trump also put an “immediate” pause on billions of dollars in funding allocated for EV charging stations appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Biden in August 2022, one of the largest investments in climate that Congress has made in the nation’s history, and also funding in the bipartisan infrastructure law passed in 2021.

Biden had set a goal of establishing 500,000 EV chargers across the United States by 2030. As of late last year, there were 214 operational chargers in 12 states that have been funded through federal laws, with 24,800 projects underway across the country, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA).

A total of more than 203,000 publicly available charging ports are operating across the United States, with nearly 1,000 being turned on every week, more than double the number available in 2021, according to the FHA.

World Economic Forum Hears Stern Climate Warning

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this week, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the world’s political and business elite about the lack of global cooperation in the face of climate change.

Guterres was speaking at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum held in the Swiss Alps, where senior politicians, Heads of State and company executives gather every January. This year they heard the sternest climate warning that the UN chief could muster.

Just days ago, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed 2024 as the warmest year on record at about 1.55°C above pre-industrial levels, a determination based on six international datasets.

“OUR FOSSIL FUEL ADDICTION IS A FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER, SPARING NOTHING AND NO ONE. ALL AROUND US, WE SEE CLEAR SIGNS THAT THE MONSTER HAS BECOME MASTER.” – Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations

“We just endured the hottest year and the hottest decade in history; 2024 is likely to be the first calendar year that pushed past 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels,” Guterres said, referring to the Paris Agreement target.

“Now, breaching this limit does not mean the long-term goal of keeping the rise in global temperature to 1.5 degrees is shot,” the UN chief declared. “It means we need to fight even harder to get on track.”

Guterres maintained that some financial institutions and industries “are backtracking on climate commitments,” leaving them “on the wrong side of history” and science, while consumers “are looking for more sustainability, not less.”

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