Just hours after taking the oath of office, in a flurry of activity, President Donald Trump signed hundreds of executive orders and proclamations, including some on matters that over which he has no legal authority.
In January, at a press conference at the hotel he lives at in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, he declared without any prior mention that he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” saying that Mexico is currently run by cartels and that “it’s ours.” Trump’s authority, in this case, is limited to directing the U.S. secretary of the interior to change the names on federal maps.
Throughout the 2020 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly fulminated against an imaginary “EV mandate” while promising to current EV reverse policies aimed at making electric vehicles less expensive for consumers.
One such order signed by Trump signaled his intention to eliminate the Biden administration’s electric vehicle policies. Under the heading “Unleashing American Energy,” he signaled his intention to “eliminate the electric vehicle (EV) mandate (sic) and promote true consumer choice, which is essential for economic growth and innovation, by removing regulatory barriers to motor vehicle access.”
The president said he will be directing agency heads to identify regulations that “impose an undue burden” on “consumer choice of vehicles,” in a thinly veiled reference to the aforementioned tailpipe emission standards.
Other promises contained in his executive orders include that he will weaken automobile exhaust emissions standards and he also declared a “national energy emergency” in a move meant to weaken U.S. environmental regulations.
Finally, he said he will end federal funding for EV charging infrastructure, saying “(a) [A]ll agencies shall immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117-169) or the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117-58), including but not limited to funds for electric vehicle charging stations made available through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula Program and the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Discretionary Grant Program…”
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
