Somewhere in China, Joe Biden must own a coal-fired power plant.

We say this because we’re otherwise at a loss to explain the citizen-beggaring, industry-wrecking vehicle emissions mandates put forth this week by his Environmental (ahem) Protection (ahem) Agency. How does the EPA think these “green” vehicles are being charged, anyway? Certainly not by wind or solar.

As threatened promised, Biden’s climate-crazed Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed historically tough greenhouse gas emission standards for cars and trucks sold in the U.S., with the goal of electric vehicles accounting for two-thirds of all new car sales in less than a decade.

“If that comes to pass,” reports the Detroit Free Press, “it would signal a remarkable transition in the American automobile market, given that electric vehicles accounted for about 6% of new sales last year, though that was a substantial increase. Polls have shown many consumers are not sold on making the switch, with concerns about range and the upfront cost of electric vehicles much more than many gasoline-powered models.”

A remarkable transition? You’re telling us.

We wrote about this on Tuesday, a day before the mandates were issued, and it’s every bit as bad as we thought. What we have here is nothing less than a strong-armed statist effort to remake remaking The Great American Industry.

Indeed, the ecofascists of Team Biden are hell-bent on picking winners and losers, ignoring the free market, and forcing all of us into electric vehicles by any means necessary — even if it means ignoring the will of the American people.

And it is ignoring the will of the American people. As we noted, recent polling shows that most Americans aren’t yet sold on EVs, with just 8% of U.S. adults saying they or someone in their household owns or leases one, and just 8% saying their household has a plug-in hybrid. As for the people’s preference, 41% say they’re at least somewhat likely to switch to an electric, but nearly half, 47%, say they’re unlikely to do so.

Polling, schmolling. This is about global climate change, after all. Here’s the eco-spin from our regulatory commissars:

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new proposed federal vehicle emissions standards that will accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean vehicles future and tackle the climate crisis. The proposed standards would improve air quality for communities across the nation, especially communities that have borne the burden of polluted air. Together, these proposals would avoid nearly 10 billion tons of CO2 emissions, equivalent to more than twice the total U.S. CO2 emissions in 2022, while saving thousands of dollars over the lives of the vehicles meeting these new standards and reduce America’s reliance on approximately 20 billion barrels of oil imports.

Want more? Here’s EPA Administrator and Chief Propagandist Michael Regan: “By proposing the most ambitious pollution standards ever for cars and trucks, we are delivering on the Biden-Harris Administration’s promise to protect people and the planet, securing critical reductions in dangerous air and climate pollution and ensuring significant economic benefits like lower fuel and maintenance costs for families. These ambitious standards are readily achievable thanks to President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which is already driving historic progress…” yadda yadda yadda yadda.

The EPA doesn’t have the legal authority to force EVs upon us, which is why it’s doing so indirectly by setting onerous CO₂ emissions standards for 2027 through 2032. This mandate is even more aggressive than Biden’s August 2021 executive order, which set a goal of 50% EV sales in 2030.

Even with the generous taxpayer-funded subsidies baked into the administration’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act, the numbers just don’t add up. Drawing from a recent Goldman-Sachs report, the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal notes: “The Energy Information Administration last month forecast that EVs will make up only 15% of sales in 2030 and 19% by 2050. While EVs are becoming more popular in the luxury class, they ‘remain less competitive against conventional gasoline-powered cars and light trucks serving the mass market,’ the report noted.”

Got that? EVs are largely a toy of the well-to-do. Which makes sense, since the average cost of an electric vehicle is more that $58,000 — which is up from more than $56,000 a year ago.

What happens if automakers can’t remake their manufacturing facilities quickly enough, or if consumers simply won’t buy what they’re selling? As the Journal reports, “Traditional car makers can make more EVs to meet the EPA standards, but if consumers don’t buy them, the companies will have to buy compliance credits from Tesla or other luxury EV makers.” Yep, carbon credits for cars.

There’s no sympathy here for our gutless auto execs, none of whom had the stones to stand up for the American people — and for their own employees, who are being laid off because of the companies’ failure to sell enough EVs that nobody wants. As the Journal maddeningly notes: “In addition to lobbying for subsidies, they intervened to defend the Administration’s recent emissions standards against a legal challenge by GOP state attorneys general. They sold themselves out to the government for subsidies, and now they are pleading for more subsidies to meet its mandates.”

We’re being incessantly told that EVs are the future, but if that’s the case, why do Big Government progressives think they need to ram them down our throats?

Because, you see, that’s simply what they do.