While it is technically incorrect to say the Biden administration mandated EVs, the emission and efficiency standards were so stringent that it appeared to be the only solution. But as they say, appearances can be deceiving and this was a classic example. There were other ways to achieve what they wanted without the kind of wholesale change in the way the American public drives. It was a bad decision by the Biden administration and a bad decision by the auto industry to not push back more.
As ethanol advocates, it was particularly frustrating for us to see proposals to reduce emissions and oil use that cost billions upon billions of dollars in corporate investment and government subsidies when we had a nearly no-cost alternative in the form of higher ethanol blends that can provide health and emission benefits cheaper, faster and in many cases, far better than an EV scenario.