The House is set to begin debating legislation Wednesday that would block the Biden administration’s increasingly forceful electric vehicle mandates, with a vote following later that afternoon, the Sun has confirmed. 

The Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act would head to the Senate, where a bipartisan group of senators recently introduced companion legislation.

The CARS Act, which was introduced by a Michigan Republican, Tim Walberg, and a Georgia Republican, Andrew Clyde, aims to “prohibit the EPA from finalizing, implementing, or enforcing” its emissions standards that the agency projects will lead to some two-thirds of all new vehicles sold in America being electric by 2032.

The outcome of Wednesday’s vote will be the latest salvo in a national debate over the future of the car industry, as automobile manufacturers and dealerships attempt to balance green energy requirements with the demands of consumers, many of whom say they are not ready or do not wish to buy an electric vehicle. 

“Washington should not hamstring our auto industry by implementing unaffordable and unattainable electric vehicle mandates,” Mr. Walberg tells the Sun. “The CARS Act, which the House will consider Wednesday, would block the extreme federal mandate and put consumers back in the driver’s seat by allowing them to choose which vehicle works best for them.”

Pew Research polling from July indicates that only 38 percent of American adults are “very” or “somewhat” likely to buy an EV — a number that has dropped four percentage points from last year. 

“We’re not opposed to electric vehicles, but we’re opposed to extreme electric vehicle mandates that will stifle innovation and price Americans out of the market,” Mr. Walberg adds.

If passed, the legislation would block the EPA’s proposed “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles.”

In addition to setting “stringent emissions standards for criteria pollutants and greenhouse gasses for these vehicles,” Mr. Walberg’s office said in a statement this summer, the proposal has “raised serious concerns regarding the accessibility of affordable vehicles” for average Americans. The average price of EVs is $17,000 more than comparable gas-powered vehicles, the statement adds, citing data from Kelley Blue Book. 

Pressure has been mounting on the Biden administration to slow down its push for electric vehicles and halt the EPA emissions proposals in recent weeks, as the Sun has reported. Last week, nearly 4,000 dealerships sent a letter to President Biden asking him to “tap the brakes” on the mandates, and new Consumer Reports data emerged that EVs have “79 percent more problems than gas vehicles.” 

The CARS Act would also “prohibit the use of authority under the Clean Air Act to issue regulations that mandate the use of any specific technology or that would limit the availability of new motor vehicles based on that vehicle’s engine type.” 

A representative of Mr. Clyde’s office was not immediately available Monday but said when co-introducing the bill last summer that the Biden administration’s “destructive energy policies” are “nothing more than thinly veiled attempts to expand government control into Americans’ daily lives.”

“President Biden’s plan to force families and workers across the country to purchase pricey electric vehicles ultimately hurts Americans’ wallets while simultaneously enriching China, one of our greatest adversaries and a very dominant force in the EV market,” Mr. Clyde said. 

A recent Alliance for Automotive Innovation analysis found that “a successful transition to electrification — and meeting government requirements — depends on factors outside the vehicle.” 

As more EVs are purchased, the electric grid and accessibility of public chargers will need to keep up, it found.

“Installation of U.S. public chargers is not keeping up with current and projected EV sales,” the analysis says. There are a total of 3.7 million EVs on the road, it found, but only 140,171 publicly available charging outlets — which comes out to 26 vehicles for every charger.The analysis also found that as electricity use increases, there will be “grid modernization required.”

By 2030, EVs “will increase U.S. electricity usage by 8 to 13 percent over 2021 levels, reaching 7 to 11 percent of all power consumed from the U.S. grid,” it says, compared to less than 0.2 percent of power in the U.S. in 2021.