Harris campaign dodges over EV mandate walkback
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Vice President Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, right, campaign in Georgia over the holiday weekend. Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images
Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign won't say whether she supports requiring automakers to build only electric or hydrogen vehicles by 2035 — a position she took during her 2020 campaign for president.
Why it matters: Since taking over President Biden's campaign in July, Harris has been light on policy details.
- Harris' campaign has said she no longer supports many of her past progressive positions and has embraced more centrist stances on health care, immigration, gun control and fracking.
- Even so, Donald Trump's campaign has focused on footage from Harris' 2020 campaign to attack her as "dangerously liberal."
Driving the news: Harris' campaign has sent contradictory signals about her position on a mandate for automakers — a key issue in pivotal Midwestern states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, where many autoworkers are based.
- In a lengthy "fact-check" email last week that covered several issues, a campaign spokesperson included a line saying that Harris "does not support an electric vehicle mandate" — suggesting she changed her previous position, without elaborating.
- On Aug. 28 Axios asked the Harris campaign to clarify her position, and whether she would sign or veto a bill she co-sponsored in 2019 that included such a mandate for manufacturers.
- On Tuesday afternoon, Harris' campaign ultimately declined to comment.
Trump has falsely claimed that Biden has already instituted such a mandate, but the current administration has pushed the adoption of EVs through a combination of tough regulations and financial incentives.
- It remains unclear how a Harris administration would deal with climate-related rules for automobiles.
Flashback: As a senator from California, Harris co-sponsored the Zero-Emissions Act in 2019, which would require by 2040 that 100% of new passenger vehicle sales in the U.S. release no greenhouse gases.
- Only electric and hydrogen vehicles currently fit that criteria. The bill didn't pass.
During her 2020 campaign, Harris promised to go further and implement an "accelerated model" of the Zero-Emission Vehicles Act, according to her archived website.
- She proposed requiring "50% of all new passenger vehicles sold are zero-emission by 2030, and 100% are zero-emission by 2035."
- Harris also pledged that all new buses, heavy-duty vehicles and auto fleets would be "zero-emission" by 2030, according to her website.
- Her plan to transition the economy to combat climate change would cost $10 trillion over 10 years through public and private money, her 2020 campaign said then.
Zoom in: Harris told CNN last week that her "values have not changed" even if some specific policy ideas have.
- Harris said she no longer thought it was necessary to ban fracking because as vice president she has seen that "we can grow and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking."
Trump and business interest groups are hitting Harris for her past stances on EV and her plans to combat climate change.
- American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers recently launched a $3 million swing state ad buy targeting Harris, arguing that "there may be someone new in the driver's seat, but the destination is the same: a ban on most new gas cars."
- The group cited Harris' 2019 positions.
