LARRY KUDLOW: This is the China bailout program

I certainly hope that former AG Bill Barr and House Oversight Chair James Comer and others can stop the new, ultra-radical, auto-emission standards put out by the EPA allegedly using the "Clean Air Act" to regulate tailpipe carbon emissions. 

Whether the Supreme Court decision on West Virginia vs. EPA, which was intended to roll back the ever-growing, ever-powerful regulatory state is applicable or perhaps the Republican House can just use their power of the purse to de-fund the relevant divisions of the EPA, all that remains to be seen, but it is very important. What the Biden administration is doing is not about clean air, which in the U.S. is already the cleanest of any large economy. No. What they're trying to do is destroy the fossil fuel industry, period. 

They're also aiming for command and control takeover the entire U.S. auto industry. This is the biggest industry takeover since Joe Stalin met Vladimir Lenin, and I don't recall any congressional laws stipulating that the EPA or any other federal regulator can take over an entire industry. Where does it say that? New car dealers who are going to be run out of business, constitute the fifth-largest industry in this country with total sales of $1.2 trillion. They rank behind banking, health care, cosmetics and hospitals. Certainly, small- and mid-size car dealers are going to be blown up and every employee will lose their job. Am I exaggerating? I don't think so, but there's more.  

The attack on the fossil fuel industry, the reduction in gasoline usage, which means reduce drilling, pipelining, refining and all the refined petroleum products that are so important to the everyday lives of American households, will be blown up by this EPA action. This was the Biden agenda from day one. He has been captured by the most radical climate people, who also double as central-planning socialists. Millions and millions of jobs are going to be lost and everything Joe Biden says about creating new jobs through these tailpipe restrictions is a flat-out lie. 

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Is this going to have any impact whatsoever on the climate? Highly doubtful. Consumers don't want electric vehicles because they're too expensive. They're not affordable, except for rich people. Survey after survey shows that 50-60% of folks have no interest in an unaffordable EV. What's more, we don't have the infrastructure in place to end gas-powered cars in 10 or 12 years. There are not enough charging stations, and anyway, they take too long. Probably most important, our electricity grid is not ready for the added burden if the Bidens had their way and two-thirds of all new cars were in play in a dozen years. Where's this added electricity going to come from? 

The Bidens are trying to shut down fossil fuels that supply roughly 80% of the new power required for all these EVs, but the Bidens are shutting down fossils. So, where's the power going to come from? Wind farms? Solar? I don't think so. There's no transition. There's no thoughtfulness. There's no infrastructure. There never has been an alternative structure with facts and figures and common sense laid out by these left-wing, rabid climate people. They are dreamers and they are going to ruin this country. 

Where are we going to get the minerals for the batteries since the Biden dreamers won't provide permits to mine for minerals? Well, I know and you know, and they may know, that this is the China bailout program. Think of this: The Bidens still have not put up a permit for the rich iron range mineral deposits up in Minnesota by Lake Superior. Still haven't done it. Or Texas. Or the Dakotas. It's absolutely incredible.

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So, we got a bunch of electric cars coming down the road with insufficient electricity, insufficient battery minerals, almost non-existent supply chains and the product is too expensive for the average middle-class family. Really? That's what they're doing? Honestly what they're doing? Well, the answer is yes if they're not stopped. 

My message to you folks is simple: Take great care of your current car. Wash it, polish it, detail it. Take care of the battery. Change the oil. Try to stay friendly with your local gas station or your dealer service shop, but then again, all those jobs may evaporate because of the Biden geniuses. Think of all that! What a sad tale. Really pathetic. 

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the April 13, 2023, edition of "Kudlow."