The ethanol industry says the Biden Administration’s push for an all-electric vehicle fleet is on a collision course with reality. The Renewable Fuels Association says at some point tax policies, infrastructure shortcomings, and tough new auto emission standards to force a switch to all EVs will hit a roadblock.
Troy Bredenkamp with the Renewable Fuels Association says “The infrastructure’s not there, and the consumers…there’s been a definite pullback from a consumer perspective, on them purchasing electric, especially all-battery electric vehicles.”
Recent media coverage cites reports by automakers and retailers of slowing EV sales, and a very limited number of new charging stations built, with just seven in the last two years, a tiny fraction of the 2030 goal of half a million.
Bredenkamp argues the best solution is to combine technologies and for the administration to let America’s farmers help power the future. He says, “I think at some point they’re going to have a realization that the ‘sweet point’ here is a plug-in hybrid concept. And that’s where we want to make sure that those plug-in hybrids turn into flex fuel vehicle plug-in hybrids because we think that would be the best of both worlds.”
But Bredenkamp says environmentalists want a total end to fossil fuels, even if no-tailpipe-vehicles have upstream emissions from electric generation. The danger, of course, is ‘regulatory whiplash’ if there’s a change in administrations next year. He says, “If it is the Trump Administration moving forward, they’re going to be pulling back, quite aggressively, on what the Biden Administration’s put forward.”
Starting with tailpipe emissions and other all-electric vehicle incentives.
Story courtesy of NAFB News Service and Matt Kaye/Berns Bureau Washington
