In today’s hyper-polarized political climate, President Joe Biden’s moderating instincts are often useful, as demonstrated by the infrastructure deal finally coming together in Congress. A half-loaf that is clearly better than nothing. But when it comes to putting out the raging wildfire that is climate change, it’s more apt to paraphrase, of all people, Barry Goldwater: Moderation is no virtue.
So it’s a relief that the Biden administration is returning to and ultimately exceeding the standards that the Obama administration set for the automobile industry — albeit not quickly enough for some environmentalists — after the Trump administration recklessly rolled them back. Perhaps more crucially, Biden’s plan would accelerate the movement toward electric vehicles.
Automobile emissions are a key driver of human-caused global warming, the ominous effects of which are all around us these days in the form of extreme weather events, melting glaciers and rising sea levels. The burning of fossil fuels like gasoline releases carbon dioxide, which is among the gases that have been building up in the atmosphere and trapping the sun’s heat, creating the greenhouse effect that has raised average planetary temperatures beyond anything seen in recorded history.
