Governor Jeff Landry Joins Republican Governors Urging Biden to Back Off of Sweeping Electric Vehicle Mandates

Governor Jeff Landry is among the now 15 other Republican governors joining in the effort to urge President Biden to deviate from his Administration's mandate that two out of three vehicles on American roads be battery-electric by 2032.

The letter argues that the American consumers' freedom to choose their own vehicle should not be decided by the federal government, though they are not opposed to the idea of the electric vehicle market growing. However, the letter urges the Biden Administration to allow the free market to decide the direction and growth of the electric vehicle (EV) industry. 

It also states that due to our lack of domestic infrastructure, a mandate such as this isn't feasible for the everyday American. The governors call access to electric vehicles “prohibitively expensive” for most Americans, and label the mandate a possible “national security risk” if such a mandate were to be enforced without the necessary charging stations and grid capacity/ reliability.

Under President Biden, EV sales have tripled, and there are now more than 166,000 public EV chargers across the country. However, with only 1.2 percent of the nearly 289.5 million cars being electric, there is still much to be done if the Biden Administration means to follow through with this mandate.

To do some quick math, two thirds of the current vehicles on the road total to 193 million cars that will be mandated to become electronic in less than a decade. Even if consumer freedom and affordability wasn’t an issue, expecting consumers to abandon the only vehicles they've ever known through force and penalization is unconscionable—and these governors agree.

Signatories include: Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders, Idaho Governor Brad Little, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen, Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon.