Fuel efficiency, EVs, and charger funding all cut by Trump’s orders

Among the new president's many executive orders were attacks on clean vehicle policies.

See full article...

 

[DrewW]

From that article that you didn't click.

No, that's not correct. I read through this article that goes on and on about three pillars of Bidenomics, but there isn't a video of Joe Biden saying anything. Frankly, this article has more Reagan quotes than Biden quotes. Strange way to sell Bidenomics.

Look, I'm very left wing. I am crushed Trump won. But we gotta get our heads out of the sand and stop pulling shit like this. A 2000 word article about Bidenomoics is 1/2000 as powerful as Trump telling people what they want to hear.

Downvote me all you want, but the problem is that I just learned from the 5th page of comments that Biden created the most jobs in American history, while Trump tells people he created the most jobs every single day.

Edit: You say "Both of them talked about the jobs created by the IRA and CHIPS act in the campaign trail and the debates." Please send me a link to a video of Joe or Kamala saying they will save jobs.

 

[raschumacher]

And so begins two years of unfettered Trumpublican misrule.

 

[smallscreensw]

America voted for this.

From the outside, it looks like the greatest nation on the planet is imploding under the massively increasing pressure of raw stupidity.

Democracy has failed. The US is now effectively an ochlocracy. Mob rule has succeeded in framing intellectuals as "evil elitist", a view promoted by media wholly controlled by oligarchs.

It sounds crazy. But it's where you're at.

Many of you Arsians did not vote for this. I know. And I am sorry for the pain it will give you the next many years (much more than four). But to be blunt: if you feel like you're on the side of sanity, then FFS get out there and advocate for more sanity! To friends, family, or from a soapbox at your local Walmart.

It's annoying and painful. But it's what you gotta do. Fight for a better world, and attribute actual time and money for doing it! Yes, really. Several hours a week, and a share of your wallet.

Put your time and your wallet where your mouth (and heart) is. You are where you are, because too few people did exactly that.

.

All I have to say, to those who voted this administration in as a way of "sending a message" to the just-exited administration - or who didn't vote at all - is, "Was it worth it?"

 

[ColdWetDog]

Yeah, but refusing to leave past your 2nd term is black and white illegal.

Who said he will wait until the end of the term to start that in play?

Actually, I don't suspect he would want a third term. It's pretty close to nighty night time for him. He, however, has a couple of close family members who could pinch hit. Which is on, I think, page 2 of the chapter on 'Older Autocrats'.

 

[uesc_marathon]

I take hope in the fact that a vehicle generation is longer than 4 years, the next 3 years or so are already designed and being readied for manufacturing with massive sunk costs, and that heavy manufacturers like automakers take a much longer view than most US corporations. Personally I think this is all a lot of nothing, because automakers know he'll be gone in 4 years (term limits), democrats will reinstate the old rules, so there's no point in changing course. Worst case is they avoid a few fines if BEVs don't sell as well as expected.

Lawl. You seriously believe that there's going to be a free election in the US in 2028?

 

[graylshaped]

I’m in Washington (the Trumpish side, unfortunately), and I’d join Canada in a heartbeat. My wife and I had a serious conversation last night about which countries we could move to. My wife and her family are first generation immigrants, and even though they did everything “the right way”, I have no doubt that eventually the Nazis in power will attempt to deport them as well. Trump’s unconstitutional executive order could affect my nephew if (or when) he tries to make it apply retroactively. That would be an unconstitutional ex post facto law, but he doesn’t care about such things as constitutionality.

This is only the second day. Things will get worse.

I read the actual order with some interest, and it confirmed that my wife--born and raised in Southern California over forty years ago, successful businessperson, PTA mom, who I watched cry thankful tears as she stood on the National Mall some years ago ,and looked at our capital and reflected on what the ideals of this country meant to her and her family--in the words of Donald J. Trump is not to be considered an American citizen.

Oh, sure, he won't tell agencies not to give her a passport, but simply saying he won't enforce it is on par with the rest of his cowardly defenses for his spite, insecurity, and hateful acts.

 

[uesc_marathon]

Yeah, but refusing to leave past your 2nd term is black and white illegal.

That's cute, you think laws matter to autocrats.

 

[fenris_uy]

No, that's not correct. I read through this article that goes on and on about three pillars of Bidenomics, but there isn't a video of Joe Biden saying anything. Frankly, this article has more Reagan quotes than Biden quotes. Strange way to sell Bidenomics.

Look, I'm very left wing. I am crushed Trump won. But we gotta get our heads out of the sand and stop pulling shit like this. A 2000 word article about Bidenomoics is 1/2000 as powerful as Trump telling people what they want to hear.

Downvote me all you want, but the problem is that I just learned from the 5th page of comments that Biden created the most jobs in American history, while Trump tells people he created the most jobs every single day.

Caption of the first fucking image. That's the text that I copied. A text that talks about President Biden talking to workers about how the IRA is helping their company grew and hire more people.

 

[ColdWetDog]

Nope: Montana and Idaho are in the way: and we don't want those

Countries don't have to be contiguous. Think Alaska and Hawaii.

EDIT: Actually, it would be more akin to Berlin during the Cold War.

 

[Fnord666]

Our saving grace there is he did everything possible in his first term to piss off the military. I can't think of a single time a dictator has successfully been installed without the military. I'd bet odds on him trying to stay in power, and a collection of military officers and the secret service haul him out of the White House by force.

Can we live stream that please? I would even pay to see it.

 

[DrewW]

And so begins two years of unfettered Trumpublican misrule.

Floridation leads to weak economics, weak morals, and the correct suspicion that your wife and the pool boy have very clean filters. Just wait until Pam Bondi pulls a Bondi and finds out the FBI is less forgiving than DeSantis' police.

 

[numerobis]

Maybe both?

I recognize the sentiment, but the US, for better or worse, is a country of sprawl. The last mile suffers if we put all of our efforts into serving those that are within traditional public transit regions (areas which also happen to correlate with greater cost housing). I would love to ditch all private car-based transportation and turn all parking lots into public parks, but even if it were practical, it will take time. People will continue to buy cars - let's ensure those cars are doing the least harm while we create other avenues for public transportation, specifically serving those areas that are middle and lower income.

Let’s copenhagenize! They have just topped 50% BEV market share thanks to generous incentives and infrastructure spending. That’s about 5x better than the U.S.

We absolutely should emulate Denmark or the Netherlands and switch to a much more public transit, trains, and active transport.

They have about 54% car ownership versus 85% in the U.S., so all that great effort still leaves a lot of cars driving around, which need to be electric.

 

[Celery Man]

And so it begins... Four more long years. Take care.

This isn’t going to end in four years. Last November was the last fair election our nation will have. There’s not going to be a non-MAGA choice on the ballot anymore.

 

[justin150]

Clearly Trump thinks big, it is not enough that parts of California are burning to the ground, there is a whole planet that he wants to burn

 

[Snark218]

Telling people who aren’t doing well that actually they’re doing great is going to win their votes how?

Radical centrists keep losing by telling people that their pain isn’t real. That leaves room for someone to come in and provide a simple and wrong solution, which is how the populists are advancing worldwide in elections.

This assumes that their pain is, in fact, valid, and that they are in objective fact not doing well. I question that premise. We're all feeling the pinch from greedflation and wage stagnation, but that aside, the economy is in fact objectively doing well, and it has been well demonstrated that Republican voters' views on the economy are largely tied to whether a Republican is in office. I am not prepared to validate anyone convinced that they are suffering economically simply because they didn't get their way in the 2020 election.

 

[numerobis]

Yeah I'd love to see an explanation on how Trump's "EV mandate" propaganda ended up in the title of an Ars Article. I think it should be titled Zero-Emission Vehicle mandate and care should be taken that it is only referring to California, such as:

California’s air pollution waiver and Zero-Emission Vehicle mandates are banned by Trump​

The current title may be more concise but is very incendiary in the current political atmosphere and appears to be heavily in the MAGA camp since "EV Mandate" is a dishonest term frequently tossed about by Trump.

Zero-emissions vehicles is a broad category of which 99.99% (rounded down) of the market are EVs.

 

[numerobis]

This assumes that their pain is, in fact, valid, and that they are in objective fact not doing well. I question that premise. We're all feeling the pinch from greedflation and wage stagnation.

Your last sentence directly contradicts your second sentence.

 

[fenris_uy]

you think I didn't read,

That you prove that you didn't read when you said that text quoted from the webpage isn't in the webpage.

You complain that Trump is a lair, but you are also a lair.

I'm going to stop talking to you, because Ars Mods don't like incivility and talking to lairs usually leads to me being incivil.

Have a good day.

 

[ColdWetDog]

It’s like early 2017 all over again, angry people on the left and right ends of the Dem Party’s tent screaming that we could have won if only we had kicked out the other group entirely.

The reality is we lost for a dozen different reasons or more, and only some of them could be easily controlled. It can neither be wholly credited to brilliant Trump strategy or Democratic incompetence, and that’s way harder to reckon with. It’s much easier, emotionally, for people to identify who is at fault (The DNC! Donors! Loud Leftists Existing!) than to reckon with it being something complex and affected by factors that couldn’t all be controlled or countered.

I don’t have an easy answer either but I know abandoning people or trying to actively kick them out of our tent isn’t going to solve anything. I would suggest to anyone who wants 2026 to go better that they get involved with their local Democratic Party. It’s going to be filled with a bunch of old people with ideas you may hate, but guess what that’s where we build out our bench of new candidates and the volunteers to support them. If you want a better Democratic Party go build it. That’s a lot harder than complaining about it on the internet though.

Kinda a bad year for incumbents worldwide. Which really doesn't make things any easier, but nobody ever said that reality would do that.

 

[Snark218]

Countries don't have to be contiguous. Think Alaska and Hawaii.

Colorado is red as a baboon's ass once you stray from the Front Range.

 

[Printzer]

Hey California, just modify your licensing laws (which are fully state managed) to require a specialized license for any vehicle with a maximum GVW over 6,000 lbs.

And with the ongoing fire situations, I can see adding a perfectly allowable vehicle tax around exhaust system temperature. Now in the interest of fairness, I'd suggest not applying said increase to existing vehicles, but grant a credit to any vehicle that does not have an exhaust system.

Just spitballin' here.

 

[ibad]

I bet the Canadians are SO glad they didn't join the wild eyed rebellion of the more southern colonies right now! Bunch of weirdos foaming at the mouth ranting "don't step on me!".... of course, if Trump has his way then maybe that piece of history will be relitigated.... maybe a redux of the 1812 war in which the USA actually achieves its objectives?

God, when one has insane cousins to the south, and now they've gone full retard. I pray for my family in Canada.

 

[carldjennings]

Executive Orders are simply instructions to the Executive Branch. They have no power or authority over the States. California can simply ignore it.

 

[Snark218]

Your last sentence directly contradicts your second sentence.

Not really. "Feeling the pinch" is not the same as not doing well or experiencing serious economic distress, and inflation driven by price gouging is not strongly tied to economic policy of any particular administration.

 

[ColdWetDog]

May we have a moratorium on Trump stories (unless he pulls an Elvis) for a while?

Do not want to restart the Klonopin…which now costs more.

Slowly now. Step away from the computer. That heavy wire coming out of the wall - pull it.

Now, go for a walk.....

 

[numerobis]

Colorado is red as a baboon's ass once you stray from the Front Range.

Practically the entire country outside the cities is FF0000 under the post-Soviet color scheme. It’s interesting that farm and labour were once aligned.

 

[fenris_uy]

Demanding people say LatinX, defund the police and do land acknowledgments before every event isn't actually making life better for one person. But is ensuring the GOP has complete control. I would think the GOP baited the Dems into this trap if I didn't know better.


The proof is that you're losing the votes communities you're allegedly trying to protect. But hey keep it up, it's working so well. Let's keep racism as our main talking point instead of economic policies which would actually help the communities you claim to care about.

Or you know, we can talk about both. That's what the campaign did. They talked about economics, and how they are going to help people (IRA, CHIPS, lower prescription costs, student debt relief, etc), and they talked about not being hateful assholes to other people.

 

[Dr Gitlin]

Yeah I'd love to see an explanation on how Trump's "EV mandate" propaganda ended up in the title of an Ars Article. I think it should be titled Zero-Emission Vehicle mandate and care should be taken that it is only referring to California, such as:

California’s air pollution waiver and Zero-Emission Vehicle mandates are banned by Trump​

The current title may be more concise but is very incendiary in the current political atmosphere and appears to be heavily in the MAGA camp since "EV Mandate" is a dishonest term frequently tossed about by Trump.

Gee, I wonder how?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/

 

[acefsw]

So, he's ceding the EV market to China? Same with clean energy investment. Dude is an idiot.

Since these initiatives were set by law, I expect lawsuits.

 

[SplatMan_DK]

I read the actual order with some interest, and it confirmed that my wife--born and raised in Southern California over forty years ago, successful businessperson, PTA mom, who I watched cry thankful tears as she stood on the National Mall some years ago ,and looked at our capital and reflected on what the ideals of this country meant to her and her family--in the words of Donald J. Trump is not to be considered an American citizen.

Oh, sure, he won't tell agencies not to give her a passport, but simply saying he won't enforce it is on par with the rest of his cowardly defenses for his spite, insecurity, and hateful acts.

Sounds so painful and unfair. :-(

There is one faint but possible chance that something good will come from this. Like Brexit in the UK, Trump & Co. might screw the country over so badly, that people finally realize what's going on. A significant majority of Britons regret Brexit and admit they were duped by populism.

I agree it's a bit of a long shot.

Oh, or a stroke. Trump is old. He might simply drop dead from natural causes.

 

[Snark218]

Demanding people say LatinX, defund the police and do land acknowledgments before every event isn't actually making life better for one person. But is ensuring the GOP has complete control. I would think the GOP baited the Dems into this trap if I didn't know better.


The proof is that you're losing the votes communities you're allegedly trying to protect. But hey keep it up, it's working so well. Let's keep racism as our main talking point instead of economic policies which would actually help the communities you claim to care about.

Oh, so are we pretending LatinX, defund the police, and land acknowledgements were all Harris ran on?

 

[Uragan]

America votes for Evil and 'lesser' Evil; never for the Greater Good. Trump's first term was the culmination of generations of "lesser evil" voting.

You really believe that Trump was the “lesser evil” in the 2016 election?

This second term is an indicator of how things will continue to be as long as democracy is defined as "you can vote for whomever you want, as long as they are from one of the 2 major corrupt corporate-sponsored political parties".

Which party is being courted openly by all the tech oligarchs? (It’s not the Democrats.)

The corporations don't care who wins, as long as the winner is beholden to the corporations.

Well, then they should be glad that the Republicans have control of the White House and both houses in Congress.

 

[Overly Common Name]

We don’t need personal EVs! WE NEED GOOD PUBLIC TRANSIT!!!!!!

Agreed, but I think that good public transit is even less likely to be coming from this administration.

 

[SplatMan_DK]

Dude is an idiot.

That was never in doubt, by anyone even half intelligent.

 

[Uragan]

I'm talking about the supporters, not the campaign.

The campaigns biggest mistake was refusing to criticize Biden when it was clear people still thought a.) inflation was an issue and b.) he wasn't fit for the job.

The Democrats used to have a lock on the working class vote including the South, writing it off as impossible due to racists is ridiculous. They focused on unions and economics.

You know that the Democrats had a lock on the South up until the Dixiecrats fled for the Republican Party in the 1960s and 1970s, right? And that the reason the Dixiecrats left is because they were a bunch of racists who were pissed that LBJ passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964?

 

[Snark218]

May we have a moratorium on Trump stories (unless he pulls an Elvis) for a while?

Do not want to restart the Klonopin…which now costs more.

Hey man, this is news. Maintain your mental health however you need to, but a site that covers science, cars, tech, and policy is going to have to cover the next four years. Walk away if you need to, but this is silly.