Biden faces criticism over his gas car ban. But he doesn’t have one

Voters in Midwestern states are seeing ads railing against President Biden’s gas car ban. But there’s one catch: the Biden administration hasn’t prohibited gas-powered vehicles. That’s not stopping fossil fuel industry groups and former President Donald Trump from targeting swing state voters with warnings of car bans.

The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, a trade group with major fossil fuel members, announced multimillion ad buys this year spotlighting state and federal policies for new car production. The ads urge viewers in the key presidential and Senate swing states of Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Montana, Ohio and Texas to oppose Biden-era rules that improve fuel economy. AFPM’s ads claim, without evidence, that the rules ban gas vehicles.

“We're not coming in in support of a candidate or an opposition of a candidate,” said Chet Thompson, AFPM President. “This is about informing people that this is happening and where they can go to get more information and to weigh in.”

Some states have adopted even more ambitious fuel economy goals than the Biden administration. But the AFPM ad buys are not taking place in those states. Instead, the AFPM ads aim to sway voters in states key to winning the White House and Congress in this year’s election.

Thompson said his group’s goal is to get lobbyists and policymakers to pay attention.

“We're in an election year, so we ought to go to places where the campaigns are paying attention. And, of course, that's in the swing states,” Thompson said.

AFPM, whose membership includes ExxonMobil, Chevron and Phillips 66, said the ads don’t advocate for any particular candidate. (ExxonMobil and Chevron are both NPR funders). But political advertisement experts say the ad campaign echoes the broader conservative plan to mobilize people who are like-minded in their mistrust of electric vehicles, whether they’re base voters or those who’ve never voted.

“Anger is a mobilizing emotion,” said Dustin Carnahan, associate professor in the department of communication at Michigan State University, who researches political communication. “And by spreading these false claims, it's trying to get voters — probably who are already predisposed to oppose Biden or the Democratic Party— to mobilize and show their power at the polls.”

Multimillion-dollar ad-buys highlight a so-called “car ban”

A recent fuel manufacturers ad shows a woman driving through a suburban neighborhood. A narrator warns that “President Biden is banning most new gas cars” and that he has put the “freedom to choose what to drive in the rearview mirror.” As the woman drives, she notices that Biden is gleefully sitting in her back seat.

“We can’t leave our choices, our economic strength and our national security in the rearview mirror,” the narrator says, urging audiences to call on Senators to overturn the “Biden car ban.”

The ad is a part of AFPM’s eight-figure campaign, with this latest commercial released in June.

Within their first two weeks, eight iterations of the ad targeting Biden and various Democratic Senators and Representatives in presidential and congressional swing states ran more than 1,400 times and were viewed over 27 million times, according to an NPR analysis of data from AdImpact, a firm that collects real-time ad data and analytics.

The AFPM campaign started earlier in the year. A second wave of ads came in February and a third in May. All the ads mention a ban on gas cars and emphasize the narrative that the new regulations limit consumer choice and freedom.

“They have that immediate, visceral reaction,” Carnahan said. “And so that's really the strategy. It's just to mobilize, it's to anger, it's to confuse. And it's also to make the other side have to respond and make them play defense.”

Gas cars are not illegal, but making new ones is not a priority

When running for president in 2020, Biden pledged to create a 100%clean energy economy, in large part by incentivizing faster adoption of renewable energy and requiring better fuel economy from cars and trucks. Transportation, powered overwhelmingly by fossil fuels, is one of the top sources of greenhouse gas pollution driving climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

To rein in climate pollution,the Biden EPA adopted ambitious standards earlier this year to decrease emissions from passenger vehicles. For car makers to meet those goals, they will have to make fewer gas-powered cars and more electric vehicles. However, the EPA rules do not ban the sale or ownership of gas cars, and car makers have until 2032 to transition to more EVs and fewer conventional vehicles.

There are some electric vehicle mandates but they’re separate from the Biden administration. Two years ago, regulators in California voted to phase out the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles, creating a total ban on sales for the state by 2035. The restrictions would apply to new cars only. People could still drive gas-powered vehicles, and buy and sell used gas cars. Plug-in hybrids, which can run on gasoline or electricity, would also be allowed.

California is the only state allowed to create its vehicle emission standards, and they typically exceed the national standards. Other states either follow federal rules, or their legislatures can vote to adopt the more stringent California standards.

So far, 12 other state legislatures have approved opting into the California standard. But none of those states are targeted by these ads.

“Because of the size of California and the size of those combined markets, it will impact automakers' decisions on what to offer in the United States,” said Stephanie Brinley, an associate director with S&P Global Mobility. “It doesn't mean gas cars go away. It does mean we're going to see more electrification.”

In swing states targeted by the AFPM ads, voters are not likely to see significant changes in the availability of gas cars in the near future, because none of them have adopted the more stringent California standards. Experts like Brinley say the transition to EVs will likely be gradual.

“Going to 100% electric vehicles in the next decade is extremely unlikely. No matter what the regulations say,” she said.

AFPM’s Thompson said his group does not oppose electric vehicles, generally. But they do oppose the prioritization of non-gas powered vehicles and have also joined efforts to legally challenge the fuel economy rules.

“We're not weighing in and saying, ‘Vote against Biden in the upcoming election,’” Thompson said. “We put Biden in there because it's his policies. He's the only person right now that could stop this.”

The ads underscore the role of energy in the 2024 election

AFPM overwhelmingly donates to Republican candidates, though they also ran ads in opposition to a Trump-era fuels policy. But this election cycle, groups that are against expanded electric vehicle production and Biden's clean energy initiatives have targeted Democratic candidates in states with electoral significance–often with false claims about those climate policies.

Trump, the presumptive GOP nominee, has also taken to railing against an “electric vehicle mandate" in these states— even including it in his GOP 2024 party platform. No such mandate exists. Still, when he speaks to crowds on the campaign trail, Trump pushes a similar message to what’s on the airwaves: Biden wants to ban your car.

“The day after the election it all stops because he wants everybody to have electric cars, which the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said in Green Bay, Wisc. “Nothing is as crazy as allowing millions of people to come into our country but the electric car is crazy.”

“Michigan, you’re going to be screwed,” he said in Waterford Township, MI.

In Philadelphia, PA, Trump warned that if Democrats win, “you will never see oil again,” or a car that “doesn’t go more than a very short distance.”

He isn’t the only one using electric vehicles and energy to campaign against Democrats. In Wisconsin, an ad by the GOP funder Restoration PAC falsely claimed that Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., cut Medicare funding to redirect money to subsidize electric vehicles. The ad was eventually pulled off the air.

Other groups, like the American Petroleum Institute, are also running ads in swing states that accuse Biden of having a gas car ban.

API spokesperson Bethany Williams said that their campaign is addressing a “de facto ban,” and despite running the ad in Pennsylvania and Michigan, they said they are not taking a stance on parties or the presidential election since they are a bipartisan organization.

“During an election year where inflation is top of mind, API is working to inform the debate and educate voters, candidates and policymakers on both sides of the aisle of the importance of sound energy policies,” Williams said in a statement. “Our message is clear: We need fewer mandates and more bipartisan solutions that protect consumer choice and secure American energy leadership.”

An analysis from the campaign finance tracking nonprofit OpenSecrets found that Republicans are the biggest recipients of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry — with GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump at the top.

The Biden campaign, which ranks 18th on the list of contributions from the oil and gas sector, did not comment on the record about the ads. And it has not done its own paid media to address the ads or their claims.

Climate Power, a progressive climate and energy group created by Biden’s now-senior adviser for international climate policy John Podesta, said they have launched their own campaigns to counter these and other ads. They argue the Biden fuel economy rules increase consumer choices by making electric vehicle options more widely available.

“Clean energy jobs and the ability to choose the vehicle you want to drive and the ability to power your home in the way you want to do it is going to be absolutely an important part of this campaign and this election,” said Alex Witt, senior advisor for oil and gas at Climate Power.

Still, they said they are not concerned about the ads’ impact on voters.

“Those are the same states where we've seen a clean energy boom and those ads are not being shown in a vacuum,” Witt said. “The people who see them are experiencing what the clean energy economy can do for their communities, too.”

The United Auto Workers union is also trying to defuse the message the ads are spreading. Its sizable membership is prized by candidates, particularly in Midwestern swing states.

David Green, UAW regional director representing Ohio and Indiana, said ads like the ones run by AFPM are “fear-mongering” that taps into concerns workers have about their jobs.

“Our members were concerned because we all know that electric cars need less parts,” Green said. “And automation is something I've seen take jobs away my entire career.”

But the UAW is looking to make sure that workers who currently make internal combustion engines, which are powered by gas, are able to find safe, high-paying jobs manufacturing parts for electric vehicles, such as lithium-ion battery manufacturing.

“Just because we're moving towards green jobs, that doesn't mean they have to come at the cost of union jobs,” Green said. “And that's when you hear the UAW talk about a just transition. We've not only talked about it, we've done it.”

On Thursday, the Biden administration announced over $1 billion in grants to help auto plants transition from manufacturing parts for gas-only vehicles to parts for electric cars.

But Brinley said the rules boosting EV production are now beyond politics. Automakers are adapting to global markets and international and domestic demand increasingly shifting away from the production of gas-only vehicles.

“It's not the Democrats who can say this is what you get and that's all you can buy. Or the Republican stance can save you from having to make that choice,” Brinley said. “It's far beyond the political parties.”