DC Update from the U.S. Oil & Gas Association

Weekly Recap

May 12, 2023

EPA’s de facto EV Mandate 

Late last week, EPA released new GHG emissions regulations for cars and trucks. Here’s one stat to demonstrate how this regulation is a de facto EV mandate. The new Toyota Prius which surprisingly looks kind of cool, is one of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. The hybrid Prius emits 155 grams of carbon dioxide per mile. EPA’s proposed regulation would require carmakers’ fleets to only emit 73 grams per mile by 2032. In other words, if Toyota only sold Priuses, it would still need to sell 50 percent EVs to meet EPA’s proposed regulation. This is certainly illegal, but also insane. More here on how EPA’s is all-but mandating EV sales.    

As a personal aside – we are now into Week 5 of waiting for our Volkswagen ID.4 to be repaired. Five freaking weeks waiting for the one mechanic in the 100k people metropolitan area to repair the other ID.4 in front of ours needing repairs. Our vehicle is six months old and has less than 4000 miles. Set aside charging infrastructure, the other ignored issue is dealer support and lack of workforce infrastructure. More on that later.