2023-04-18 07:42:51
Time.news – Joe Biden’s ‘green’ challenge. The commitment of the incumbent US president could become one of the bets in the next presidential campaign: he could bring votes in favour, or, conversely, produce a haemorrhage of consensus. Indeed, the ecological “turbo challenge” risks being blocked by two main obstacles: the Republicans and the majority of Americans. In the week the Environmental Protection Agency announced an unprecedented plan to accelerate the ecological transition of the United States. The goal is to ensure transitioning two-thirds of the US vehicle fleet to electric by 2032.
So far, as The Hill recalls in a lengthy analysis of the White House’s “green bet,” less than 6 percent of new vehicles sold last year wereor. Trying to impose such a radical change in American habits is a choice that has rarely been rewarded from a political point of view.
Just remember what happened with the federal imposition of the anti-Covid vaccine, a measure that provoked the protest of millions of Americans and the appeal to the Supreme Court. At a time when Republicans are finding it difficult to support the battle against abortion and defend Donald Trump, Biden may have offered them a bank to earn two precious seats in the Senate: those of Joe Manchin, in West Virginia, and by Jon Tester, Montana, that is, the two Democrats in favor of drilling, the two moderates who are supported by the oil lobbies and who will find themselves having to campaign in Republican-led states but whose Democratic base is in favor of the electric transition. Conservative voters opposed to the ‘green’ turn will vote for their candidates, Democrats in favor of electric cars could punish the two senators.
But, to the uncertainty of Manchin and Tester, considered two senators at risk for the Democratic Party, another one is added: over the next nine years, with the increase in electric charging stations, petrol stations and services will decrease for traditional cars. Millions of people will be forced, even if they don’t want to, to buy a ‘green’ vehicle, the prices of which will still remain high for a few years. In addition, there will be technical and logistical problems: currently the electric cars circulating in the United States depend for their microchips and technology on Chinese manufacturing and tech companies. And there aren’t enough electric charging stations to meet a possible increase in demand. Between the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, to promote domestic production, Biden has deployed many resources to make the green transition more accessible to Americans. Five billion dollars have been allocated for the construction of 500,000 electric charging stations to be installed along major traffic roads and another 2.5 billion for those to be built within urban areas.
But, at the moment, polls say Americans aren’t thrilled: according to Gallup’s survey alone 4 percent of those interviewed say they have an electric car, and only 12 say they are seriously considering buying one. 41 percent, on the other hand, say they will never buy it. Furthermore, only 12 percent believe that electric cars will play a “big role” in tackling climate change. In total, 71 percent of Republican voters say they will never leave the traditional model, a position shared by more than half Americans: a poll last summer by Pew Research found that 55 percent of those polled were against the idea of giving up fuel-powered vehicles by 2035. However, Biden is convinced that in the 2024 presidential campaign, presenting himself as a champion of ecological change will guarantee him the vote of the younger generations, but at the moment America to which the president tip seems divided between a conservative part that will choose the traditional car, and a small progressive part that will go with ecological vehicles.
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