From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

It is an ill-kept secret of American politics that most of the big labor unions in the country have long been client organizations of the Democratic Party. In presidential election years, endorsements from these unions for the party’s nominee have generally been foregone conclusions regardless of voting attitudes of rank-and-file union members.

Some are quicker to endorse than others. Vice President Kamala Harris barely had time to buy campaign letterhead before the United Auto Workers (UAW) weighed in on July 31 with its endorsement. The union’s bosses made the move despite the reality of the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandates placing many of that union’s jobs at risk as the companies they work for lose billions each year on quixotic efforts to force the public to enjoy paying premiums for cars they cannot rely upon when the going gets tough.

Even with that early move, the UAW fell 9 days behind the AFL-CIO, which jumped on the Harris bandwagon so quickly it probably made union members’ heads spin. Hey, speed matters when your business model relies on constantly asking for favors and protections from the federal government, for which the Democratic Party has traditionally been the most fertile ground to plow.

Given that reality, the Teamsters Union made big news this week by endorsing — well, no one — despite overwhelming support among the rank-and-file for the Republican candidate, former President Donald Trump. It was the first time the Teamsters had failed to endorse the Democrat in a race since 1996, and only the second time in the union’s existence. Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican convention in July — and was snubbed by the Democrats at their convention in return. So, the refusal to endorse Harris was not a huge surprise. But O’Brien, fully aware of the vindictive nature of the Democrats towards their political enemies, apparently decided it would not be politically prudent to give a full-throated endorsement to the candidate his members so obviously prefer.

With the race shaping up to be another nail-biter, it remains to be seen whether any of these major unions’ decisions will prove to be wise. But for the UAW, the move to endorse Harris comes with increasing risk amid a softening market for the EVs being forced on U.S. consumers and the rising challenge by Chinese EV makers to the hegemony of domestic car companies in the U.S. market.

With legacy automakers like Ford and General Motors already bleeding billions of dollars in losses in their EV divisions despite heavy government subsidies in place, they can ill-afford an incursion into the U.S. market from Chinese carmakers who are able to make and sell quality EVs for far less than American car companies can. Right now, Europe is providing an object lesson about what happens in the EV space when governments allow that to happen.

EU countries were slow to move to protect their domestic car manufacturers when Chinese companies like BYD began to flood the European market with EVs. EV buyers in countries like Germany and France eagerly bought up the Chinese cars, saving thousands of Euros per unit in the process. When the EU belatedly moved to impose import tariffs on Chinese cars, the domestic car companies responded by raising prices for their own EVs in an effort to recover losses.

The result has been entirely predictable: EV sales in Germany collapsed by nearly 70% during the month of August. In France, they plunged by 33%. Clearly the appetite among EU car buyers for EVs is extremely price sensitive (no one could have possibly seen that coming), and consumers are more than happy to go back to buying gas-powered cars as cheaper alternatives.

Now, the climate alarmist central planners at the EU are proposing to respond to those uncooperative buyers by imposing massive fines on car makers for continuing to sell them the gas-powered cars they actually want to buy. Because, of course, that would be the response from power-mad apparatchiks.

Given that the Biden-Harris regime has basically followed the EU’s model on EV regulation, the EU’s struggles provide a preview of coming attractions for the U.S. auto market under a Harris presidency. It is hard to believe this is the future the UAW leadership really desires for its members.

David Blackmon is an energy writer and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation 

By Nick Pope

Energy-focused organizations called on lawmakers to scrap the Biden-Harris administration’s electric vehicle (EV) “mandate” in a Thursday letter.

More than two dozen energy groups sent the letter to every lawmaker in Congress, urging them to push through Congressional Review Act (CRA) proceedings against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) tailpipe emissions standards for light-duty vehicles. The CRA enables legislators to effectively overturn federal regulations provided a resolution targeting a specific rule can pass both chambers of Congress and gets signed by the president, or if lawmakers can manage to override a presidential veto, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“This EPA rulemaking is clearly beyond the scope of the regulatory power granted to the agency by Congress,” the letter states. “While this overreach will be litigated in the courts, a positive CRA decision now would ensure that consumers are protected today, rather than wait years for the issue to work its way through the court system.” CRA Tailpipe Coalition Letter Final by Nick Pope on Scribd

Specifically, automakers could come into compliance with the EPA’s rules if EVs make up 56% of their new car sales by 2032, with an additional 13% of sales being plug-in hybrids, according to The Associated Press. While the Biden-Harris administration maintains that the regulations are not an EV mandate, critics say that the rules will effectively force manufacturers to increase EV production to such an extent that they amount to a de facto mandate.

The Biden-Harris administration has set a target of having 50% of all new car sales be EVs by 2030 as part of its broader green energy and climate agenda. Despite billions of dollars of spending and stringent regulation, American consumers remain hesitant to switch over to all-electric models while manufacturers are losing large amounts of cash on their EV product lines and starting to back off of ambitious short-term production goals.

“In a move that shocks no one, the Biden-Harris EPA has once again overstepped its authority with their EV mandate. By prioritizing politics over personal freedoms, this Administration is destroying the cornerstone of our economy — consumer choice,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, said. “What the Biden-Harris Administration is trying to do with his mandate is deceptive, ill-advised, and a gross overreach of power. While it will undoubtedly be litigated by those who stand on the side of consumer choice and economic freedom, passage of the CRA resolution will ensure consumers are protected today.”

Beyond the American Energy Alliance, other signatories include Americans for Prosperity, the Western Energy Alliance, Heritage Action, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and Always On Energy Research.