Fate of Biden's Infrastructure Plan Now Depends on Electric Pickup Trucks

President Biden had visited a car plant and given a policy statement, but he couldn't leave Michigan without trying out a new electric pickup truck.

Conservatives continued to put the brakes on President Biden's electric-vehicle plans in Washington, where two of his cabinet secretaries met with Senate Republicans in an attempt to broker a compromise agreement on infrastructure investment.

Senate Republicans say their counterproposal to Vice President Biden's transit plan would provide any funding for electric cars, but they cannot match Mr. Biden's dollar amounts.

Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and a co-author of the Republican infrastructure package, said, "The Biden administration is pushing costly fantasy jobs while killing existing ones at a time when America cannot afford to lose these jobs."

Job Plans

Mr. Biden's $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan focuses extensively on physical infrastructure and government investment to accelerate the transition to an economy less reliant on carbon oil to tackle climate change. The proposal provides tax credits for low-emission cars, money to turn one-fifth of the nation's school bus fleet to electric power, money to install 500,000 electric charging stations around the country, and various other funding to promote electric car research, development, and rollout.

Mr. Biden has pledged that by 2030, the United States would have reduced its climate-warming emissions by half from 2005 levels, an ambitious target that will necessitate a dramatic restructuring of the country's economy, including a drastic transition by American drivers from cars and trucks powered by internal combustion engines to zero-emission electric vehicles.

The Biden administration expects to consider reinstating strict new mileage and tailpipe pollution requirements by midsummer. After the Trump administration scaled back Obama-era fuel-economy regulations designed to curb planet-warming vehicle emissions.

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