Donald Trump took aim at federal support for the sale of electric vehicles (EVs) on Monday, amid a flurry of promised executive orders on his first day back in the White House.
“The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity,” Trump said during a ceremony at Capitol One Arena, where he signed a raft of executive orders before a roaring crowd.
One of those orders revokes 78 Biden-era actions, including a 2021 executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 electric.
That target was not binding. It also won support from top automakers.
“These clean car rollbacks will burden Americans with a Trumpfecta of higher prices, more pollution and weaker competitiveness,” said Dan Becker, director of the safe climate transport campaign at the environmental non-profit Center for Biological Diversity. “Our kids and everyone with lungs will pay the price for these politically motivated rollbacks of protections for our air and the climate.”
Trump’s order is part of a promised push to repeal environmental protections introduced by Biden and to support US makers of gas-powered cars. He has also promised to roll back auto pollution standards finalized by Biden’s administration last spring – a rule Trump calls an “EV mandate”, though it did not directly require the production of electric vehicles.
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