News: Dems play defense on EVs

Monday, October 7, 2024

Dems play defense on EVs

Oct 07, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris walks off of an electric school bus during a tour at Meridian High School, in Falls Church, Virginia.

Prominent Democrats are reacting to public backlash against electric vehicles a month ahead of the November election. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP

QUICK FIX

— Kamala Harris and other prominent Democrats are facing a GOP-led backlash to electric vehicles in key swing states.

— GOP Rep. Michelle Steel is pushing a bill that would make it harder for dockworkers to strike going forward.

— The World Trade Organization will begin its process to appoint the next director-general tomorrow.

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Driving the day

ELECTRIC BOOGALOO: The politics of electric vehicles — and the industrial policies that support them — are heating up in the critical swing state of Michigan.

On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris was in Flint, where she tried to disavow her past support for legislation to phase out gas-powered vehicles completely. “Contrary to what my opponent is suggesting,” she said, “I will never tell you what kind of car you have to drive.”

That’s the line from Michigan Democrats, too, as they react to a public backlash against electric vehicles in the Great Lakes State. For months, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, has been telling voters that she doesn’t care what they drive. She even cut a new ad talking about how she lives on a dirt road with poor access to vehicle charging.

But Democrats aren’t abandoning EVs completely. Despite their newfound skepticism for the vehicles themselves, they’re all in on EV industrial policies — spending billions of dollars to kickstart battery and EV manufacturing in Michigan and across the nation.

“If the question is who’s going to build the next generation of cars, I want it to be the United States of America, not China,” Slotkin told POLITICO last month in a suburb outside Detroit.

Republicans are calling BS, arguing that despite their recent retreat from EV regulations, Harris and other Democrats still want to ban gas-powered vehicles.

Harris is “lying specifically to the voters of Michigan because they would be hurt the worst by her devotion to green vehicles and opposition to good old American gas-powered cars,” Trump senior adviser Tim Murtaugh told POLITICO over the weekend. “She doesn’t want to own her ideas that would kill auto industry jobs because it’s inconvenient now, but the record is the record.”

Slotkin’s opponent, former Rep. Mike Rogers, is piling on as well, slamming the Democrat for her votes against GOP legislation that would have gutted EPA tailpipe emission rules. “Just like an EV, no one is buying her lies,” said the Rogers campaign’s communications director Chris Gustafson.

The attacks appear to be catching on with Michigan voters. Statewide polling this summer showed that 55 percent of them disapprove of the Biden-Harris administration efforts to push consumers toward electric vehicles, compared with the 40 percent who approve.

Changing the conversation: Perhaps more significantly, the attacks have turned the conversation on EVs away from Democrats’ industrial policies, which are helping bring online new electric vehicle and battery factories in Michigan and other swing states.

In 2022, Slotkin beat her GOP opponent, in part, by depicting him as hostile to policies that support the auto industry. Now, despite those policies starting to take hold across the state, Democrats have had to play defense when it comes to EVs.

On the Hill

ADDRESSING THE NEXT PORT STRIKE: A California Republican is pushing legislation that would introduce stricter guidelines for dockworkers and give the federal government greater leverage in handling disputes that threaten supply chain stability.

The Safeguarding the Supply Chain Act, introduced by House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Michelle Steel (R-Calif.), would hold maritime workers to similar requirements as airline and railway workers before they can stage strikes.

The bill would effectively expand the Railway Labor Act, a near-century-old measure that says unions and employers must fully explore all mediation options in front of the National Mediation Board before a strike can take place. The Biden administration and Congress previously used the law to impose an agreement on rail workers in 2022.

“Widespread strikes at American ports threaten product shortages and price increases for consumers,” Steel said in a statement last week. “My bill would force both sides back to the negotiating table for a resolution and get our economy moving again.”

How we got here: Tens of thousands of East Coast dockworkers and the shipping industry announced Thursday evening that they had reached a tentative agreement on wages and are extending an expired contract through Jan. 15, defusing a political time bomb for Democrats.

Despite this temporary resolution, Steel is “definitely” still planning to pursue the measure, a staffer for her office told Morning Trade.

The lawmaker believes the bill is “good policy moving forward in the event of future disputes, given the importance of stable supply chains to national economic interests.” The bill currently has no co-sponsors, but Steel’s office is “working to build support,” the staffer said.

Around the World

ACCELERATING WTO REAPPOINTMENT: Norwegian Ambassador Petter Ølberg, who chairs the WTO’s General Council, has confirmed that the appointment process for the next director-general will kick off on Tuesday, writes Caroline Hug.

Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala informed Ølberg last month that she intends to seek a second term. Normally, the nomination process for the next DG would begin on Dec. 1. But the African Group of countries has called for the process to start early in order to maximize preparation time for the WTO's next ministerial conference.

Keep in mind: An early start could also allow Okonjo-Iweala to secure a second term before former President Donald Trump has an opportunity to block her, should he win a second White House term in November.

GERMANY RESISTS DUTIES ON CHINA: On Friday, European Union countries opted to press ahead with new duties of up to 35.3 percent electric vehicles imported from China — another signal of growing alignment among western countries on the threat of Beijing's overcapacity.

The result came despite German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s last-minute push to block the proposal entirely.

Not alone: The results of Friday’s vote were similar to an earlier, non binding vote in July — although there were a few notable moves.

Along with Germany, four other countries voted against the duties, according to a tally seen by POLITICO. Viktor Orbán’s Hungary and Robert Fico’s Slovakia were among them, as was Malta. Slovenia voted against on Friday, having abstained in July.

POLITICO Europe has more here.

People on the Move

Ngor Luong has joined the State Department as the Center for Security and Emerging Technology Fellow to work on tech and China policy in the Office of the Chief Economist.

TRADE OVERNIGHT

— What really happened on Tim Walz’s trips to China, per POLITICO Magazine.

— U.S. Republicans fear U.K. Chagos Islands deal will boost China, Pro reports.

— VW CEO sees threat of retaliatory tariffs from China, Bild says, per Bloomberg News.

— China ‘rejected U.S. pleas to co-operate in Houthi crisis in Yemen,’ per The Sunday Times.

THAT’S ALL FOR MORNING TRADE! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop the team a line: dpalmer@politico.com, gbade@politico.com and ahawkins@politico.com. Follow us @POLITICOPro and @Morning_Trade.