Ann Carlson, President Biden’s former pick to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), still runs the agency and shapes key policies despite failing the Senate confirmation process.
In May, the White House announced it had withdrawn Carlson’s nomination to serve as NHTSA’s administrator amid criticism from lawmakers and industry groups over her past climate activism.
However, as of Tuesday, Carlson remains the agency’s acting administrator and last week helped roll out aggressive federal fuel efficiency standards automakers argued would cost more than $100 billion.
“The new standards we’re proposing today would advance our energy security, reduce harmful emissions and save families and business owners money at the pump. That’s good news for everyone,” Carlson said in a statement Friday as part of a Department of Transportation press release that identified her as NHTSA’s top official.
The so-called Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards require passenger cars and light trucks to improve fuel efficiency by 2% and 4%, respectively, beginning in 2027. …
Overall, the standards could increase car prices enough to make electric vehicles cost-competitive with traditional gas-powered vehicles.
The Biden administration has repeatedly aimed to push greater nationwide electric vehicle adoption even as they remain far more expensive than gas cars.
“It is outrageous that despite the fact that the American people’s representatives in the Senate did not consent to Ann Carlson leading her agency, Biden is still keeping this radical in power,” American Accountability Foundation President Tom Jones, a vocal opponent of Carlson’s nomination, told Fox News Digital Tuesday.
“It appears that she intends to use that power to impose the most Draconian climate agenda ever, even though it is regular Americans who will end up paying the price.”
In January 2021, the Biden-Harris transition team hired Carlson, then an environmental law professor at UCLA, to serve as NHTSA’s chief counsel.
While the position didn’t require Senate confirmation, Carlson oversaw key agency initiatives in that role and has served as acting administrator since September.
Biden nominated Carlson to lead NHTSA in February. In the months that followed, she faced heavy opposition for her past work in the private sector advising plaintiffs in climate litigation and comments she made via email about her role with the Biden administration.
According to the emails reviewed in April by Fox News Digital, Carlson told her colleagues at UCLA she had been selected to serve at NHTSA in a climate-focused role.
She even said in one email that her selection was “evidence that the Biden Administration is truly committed to a ‘whole of government’ approach to addressing climate change.”
“NHTSA has authority over fuel economy for cars and trucks and has been at the center of the standards to reduce [greenhouse gas emissions] from the transport sector,” she wrote in one of the emails from Jan. 19, 2021.
“I’m being appointed along with the deputy administrator as the first NHTSA appointees ever with serious climate expertise.”
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Biden is a total idiots and he surrounds himself with total idiots like himself
According to the article on this site, “New Report: Billions Of Taxpayer Dollars Go To EPA To Enforce Environmental Justice,” $100 billion is equivalent to all student loans in a given year for colleges and universities, is equivalent to half the budget of the Chinese military, and more than what the Russians spend on their military each year.” It is outrageous that an elitist bureaucrat that was rejected by the Senate was left in position to impose this cost on consumers.