General Motors (GM) CEO Mary Barra is cheering on Joe Biden’s climate change agenda as the multinational automaker drops its support for President Trump in a legal battle with California over their strict emission rules.
Last year, Trump dropped a waiver allowing California to have strict fuel emission rules. Subsequently, California officials filed suit against Trump. GM, at the time, sided with Trump in the legal battle.
In a letter released on Monday, though, Barra wrote that GM was dropping its support for the Trump administration in the legal battle and asked Toyota and Fiat Chrysler to also drop their support. Barra said she is “confident” that Biden can usher in an “all-electric future.”
Barra writes:
President-elect Biden recently said, “I believe that we can own the 21st-century car market again by moving to electric vehicles.” We at General Motors couldn’t agree more. We are inspired by the President-elect’s Build Back Better plan which outlines a clear intention to expand vehicle electrification in the United States, create one million jobs, install 550,000 charging stations, and position American auto workers and manufacturers to win the race for electrification. [Emphasis added]
We believe the ambitious electrification goals of the President-elect, California, and General Motors are aligned to address climate change by drastically reducing automobile emissions. We are confident that the Biden Administration, California, and the U.S. auto industry, which supports 10.3 million jobs, can collaboratively find the pathway that will deliver an all-electric future To better foster the necessary dialogue, we are immediately withdrawing from the preemption litigation and inviting other automakers to join us. [Emphasis added]
The sudden reversal of support for Trump in his fight against California’s fuel emission rules comes after the president went to bat for American auto workers whose livelihoods were disrupted when Barra announced the closure of multiple plants in the United States — laying off thousands in the process.
Last year, GM led all U.S. multinational corporations in shipping American jobs to foreign countries like Mexico and China, federal data finds, according to Forbes:
Last year, GM asked for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) for 4,794 workers, all of them due to plant and other closures in Ohio, Maryland and Michigan. [Emphasis addd]
The closure of its Lordstown, Ohio plant led to the loss of 1,300 jobs in March 2019. [Emphasis added]
Lordstown was the first of five factories GM intends to close, with a total projected job loss of 14,000. Most of the work done at those facilities will go to Mexico where labor costs are lower and the new Nafta keeps free trade across borders a viable manufacturing strategy for GM. [Emphasis added]
Biden’s climate change agenda includes reimplementing President Obama’s tax credit for those who buy electric vehicles like those made by GM.
“Biden will restore the full electric vehicle tax credit to incentivize the purchase of these vehicles,” the former vice president’s agenda states. “He will ensure the tax credit is designed to targeted middle-class consumers and, to the greatest extent possible, to prioritize the purchase of vehicles made in America. And, he will work to develop a new fuel economy standard that goes beyond what the Obama-Biden Administration put in place.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder.
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