The Biden candidate pushing electric vehicles is facing massive opposition from the energy industry

FIRST ON FOX: A grand coalition of 43 of the oil and gas industry’s most influential trade groups opposes President Biden’s nominee to head a safety sub-authority of the Department of Transportation.

The coalition — led by the Western Energy Alliance and joined by the American Petroleum Institute and the National Ocean Industries Association, among others — penned a letter to Senate leaders on Wednesday expressing their firm opposition to Ann Carlson’s appointment to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced).

The groups argued that Carlson’s previous statements suggest she is willing to sidestep the agency’s mission and implement sweeping climate policies to promote electric vehicles (EV). Congress created NHTSA in 1970 to improve passenger vehicle safety in the face of increasing traffic accidents and fatalities.

“[Carlson’s] Multiple public statements unveil a clear agenda to move beyond NHTSA’s congressional mandated mission of vehicle performance and safety standards and transform it into a climate change enforcement agency,” the coalition wrote. “We are also concerned about Carlson’s lack of transparency regarding her work promoting wrongful climate change trials.”

BIDEN REVEALS THE TOUGHEST CAR EMISSION RULE OF ALL TO ENFORCE ELECTRIC VEHICLE BUYING

“Today, NHTSA’s most pressing concern is not the impact of climate change decades into the future, but rather road safety in the here and now,” the letter continued. “Americans face real dangers from distracted and impaired drivers behind the wheel and potential violations of vehicle safety standards.”

Fox News Digital reported in April that in 2021, Carlson privately boasted in emails received from a monitoring group that she was recruited by the government to monitor climate standards for cars and trucks.

BIDEN-NOMINATED DARK MONEY COORDINATED CLIMATE POLLUTION LAWSUITS WITH LEONARDO DICAPRIO

She noted in the emails that NHTSA is “responsible for climate standards for cars,” that she is among the first “NHTSA officers ever with serious climate expertise,” and that her appointment proves that the Biden administration “really cares about its climate.” would take seriously goals.”

“I view my appointment (and a host of others) as evidence that the Biden administration is truly committed to a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to addressing climate change,” Carlson wrote in a March 21 email verified by Fox News Digital. January.

At the time, the Biden-Harris transition team hired Carlson, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles, as NHTSA’s chief counsel, the emails showed. While the position did not require Senate confirmation, Carlson has overseen key agency initiatives such as changing fuel economy standards and has served as deputy administrator since September.

The Western Energy Alliance-led coalition wrote that NHTSA’s steward “should be focused on saving lives and reducing harm, not refocusing the agency to pursue a whole-of-government approach to climate change.”

BIDEN’S EPA HAS COORDINATED WITH LEFT-WING ECO-GROUPS LINKED TO THE LIBERAL DARK MONEY NETWORK

“It’s on a mission to ban the internal combustion engine,” Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “It’s pretty clear that she wants to use NHTSA’s regulatory powers to do something Congress hasn’t given her the authority to do. And that should force drivers into electric vehicles.”

“She’s just not cut out for the job,” Sgamma continued. “She has an agenda on climate change and she has conflicts of interest. She just isn’t concerned about road safety at all. It’s about getting Americans out of the vehicles they want to drive and forcing them into electric vehicles.”

Wednesday’s letter was addressed to Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairperson Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., and Ranking Member Ted Cruz, R-Texas. The committee is tasked with overseeing their nomination.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

But Cruz forwarded a letter signed by each Republican committee member to Carlson Monday, expressing concern about the Biden administration’s aggressive EV push. The letter was first reported by The Hill.

President Biden nominated Carlson, an environmental law expert, for NHTSA administrator in February. The Senate Commerce Committee received the White House nomination on March 27.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.