The Greening of Transportation Stability in the United States, By Eliot Jobe

Introduction: Transportation policy in the United States is defined by issues of energy security, environmental protection, and economic goals. It is most prominently found in road vehicle transport. Recently, the Administration prioritized deregulation of transportation decarbonization standards through efforts to reset and change Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, “reconsideration” of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations, and removing EV tax credits (EPA 2025, EV World 2025). These aim at reinforcing the prominence of road transport in the transportation industry. Benefits of this deregulation include potential increased efficiency and profitability in the industry, continued contribution to the United States economy/GDP, and increased employment rates. Drawbacks to this deregulation include the potential losing out on economic, employment, industry, and environmental benefits of deregulation.

Benefits of Deregulation: The benefits of deregulation include potential increased efficiency and profitability in various industries, contributions to the United States economy, and increased employment rates, all of which are impacted by heavy regulations in the automotive industry.

• Industry: The increased deregulation of these transportation standards stands to create a boost in two key industries. The first is the trucking industry, which has historically seen a large growth factor in deregulated economies. Regulation affects efficiency through things like circuitous routing required by the ICC, increasing rates, and detrimentally impacting service quality (Moore 1987). Logistics costs, historically, rose as a percentage of GNP under heavy regulations, and dropped by 11.3% between 1981 and 1987. Heavy regulations (such as those in the EU) have also been shown to decrease automotive company profits (Lanzalonga, Likavec, and Biancone 2025).
• Economic Effects: Symptomatic of these increases in industry profitability, economic benefits are also proposed. The shipping industry in the United States maintained an approximate 6.5% of the United States’ GDP in 2023 (Bureau of Transportation Statistics n.d.). Based on Moore’s claims, the increased efficiency and profitability of this industry stand to create a subsequent boost in that sector of the United States’ overall GDP. This stands near equal with the 4.9% of the U.S. GDP contributed to by the automotive industry (Alliance for Automotive Innovation 2022).
• Increased Employment Rates: The automotive industry produces, coast-to-coast, 9.6 million American jobs, supporting American-made autos each year. Furthermore, nearly 1 in 20 jobs in the United States is supported by the auto industry, with leading employment numbers in the foremost GDP-contributing states in the United States (California, Texas, and Florida, respectively). Further investing in the individual autonomous vehicle industry would support U.S. employment rates and is projected to increase by a 4% growth rate for technicians and mechanics between 2024 and 2045 (Bureau of Labor Statistics n.d.). This is consistent globally, as well, with the global automotive industry supporting 9 million people in direct manufacturing jobs, and an additional 50+ million indirect jobs in related sectors (OICA n.d.). The individual autonomous vehicle industry is a powerhouse for job creation, both in the United States and globally. 

Benefits of Continued Regulation: The benefits of the continued and increased emphasis on autonomous vehicle regulation are substantial. This section will address the benefits of regulation and how they compare to the benefits of deregulation, focusing on the effects of electrification on industry, national economics, and employment rates.

• Industry: A push toward electrification does not mean there would be a loss of industry profitability, just a shift in the required resources. It will require manufacturers to invest heavily in EV development and deployment, transition their fleets, and rethink their production processes. Furthermore, it has created multiple new players in the industry, such as Tesla, which has a 38% EV market share in 2025, and new players such as Rivian and Lucid (Jackson n.d.). The competitiveness of this has driven companies to adapt, bringing legacy manufacturers such as Ford, Chevrolet, Hyundai, and Kia to the table and driving the electrification of the industry. This electrification is also pushing in-U.S. production of electric vehicles, with 74.4% of electric vehicles sold in the United States being produced in North America, vs. only about half of new vehicles sold in the United States being assembled in domestic plants (EIA 2024, USA Today 2025).
• Economic Effects: Economic effects tend to manifest in two different tranches: the economic effects of the automotive industry’s electrification and the economic effects of increasing the energy infrastructure needed to support this electrification. An electrified automotive industry is projected to save consumers money in the long run, with EVs yielding about $8,000-$12,000 worth of savings on maintenance over the lifetime of a car. Furthermore, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act creates jobs by investing in EV infrastructure throughout the United States. Furthermore, the tax credits that are slated to disappear extended a tax credit of up to $7,500 for the purchase of new EVs, which substantially increased EV industry investment (ICCT 2025). The economic impact of the necessary energy infrastructure also drives the U.S. economy, with the clean power manufacturing contributing $18 billion to the U.S. GDP annually, with the majority of active facilities located in Republican (and historically poorer) states, supporting the GDPs of states that really need it.
• Employment Rates: Electrification also substantially drives job growth. To start, related industries have the opportunity to grow. Green manufacturing practices open up job opportunities in areas such as recycling, renewable energy integration, and sustainable materials development (Zamanov 2023). The renewable energy industry itself has created jobs in spades, with the DOE showing that clean energy jobs grew at more than twice the rate of overall U.S. employment in 2023 (Energy.gov 2024). Furthermore, the potential for job creation in the EV industry itself is high because of the increased need for specialized manufacturing skills, maintaining and servicing EVs, and the increased need for innovation regarding the creation and implementation of charging infrastructure. The job opportunity potential more than compensates for the benefits that come from deregulation.
• Energy Security Benefits: Through increased investment in electric vehicles, we further the need for domestic energy, as these vehicles are produced and fueled more in the United States than the rest of the world. By investing in sustainable energy, the United States is able to increase energy independence. Furthermore, this is proven to help build a more stable, resilient power grid, as seen in the EU in 2023 after the start of the Russia-Ukraine War (IBM n.d.).
• Environmental Benefits: The environmental benefits of continued regulation and the overall shift towards electrification are significant. From an emissions standpoint, electric and hybrid vehicles have substantial effects on the environment by removing tailpipe emissions. Furthermore, electric vehicles have an upward trajectory of sustainability, as when the generation of electricity gets cleaner, the vehicles’ carbon footprints shrink. Even as it currently stands, a medium-sized EV produces 60-68% fewer greenhouse gas emissions over its lifetime than a gas-powered car (Bieker 2021).

Recommendation: The Congresswoman is encouraged to support the regulations that were imposed by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and reconsider the deregulation of the automotive industry. The primary benefits of deregulation are economic, but are easily countered by the economic benefits of electrification. The face of the automotive industry will change, but economic benefits, including an increased diversification of portfolios and an increase in North American production, will directly augment the American economy. Between the increase in required infrastructure and the benefits of electrification in lower fuel and maintenance costs, there are clear economic benefits that compensate for the loss with a shift away from combustion engines. Concerning job growth, there are also significantly high-skilled labor opportunities in the electrified car market, which builds substantial job growth. 

Policy Tools: This section will discuss the pros and cons of different policy tools to support this recommendation.

• Tax Credits: By utilizing the tax credits that were leveraged in the Inflation Reduction Act, there is an opportunity to further incentivize producers to electrify. Pros of this include incentive to diversity producer portfolios/fleets, and cons mainly lie in the potential fiscal implications, since the majority of EV owners who took advantage of the tax credit were already on the market for an electric vehicle (Stanford Report n.d.).
• Proliferation of Charging Infrastructure: The proliferation of charging stations is made to reduce “range anxiety” and make charging infrastructure easily available, reducing the barrier to entry for electric vehicles, particularly in rural areas. Challenges to this implementation include differing and contrary state regulations and the need for upgraded power grids to support the change.
• Supply Chain Support: The Department of Energy has an Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing (ATVM) Loan Program that allocates billions of dollars in private capital to manufacturing facilities building the necessary technology (BlueGreen Alliance n.d.). One potential con of this is the high price of new electric vehicles compared to traditional combustion engines.

While there is a question of direct benefit to taxpayers for some of these policy tools, leveraging them has proved to support the industry and bring the aforementioned industry, economic, and employment benefits directly and indirectly to taxpayers, even if it isn’t through direct savings in every case. Furthermore, as with many sustainability issues, environmental effects aren’t even on the playing field as a benefit of deregulation, which removes a substantial benefit of the remaining regulation and weakens the overall argument in favor. Due to the industry, economic, employment, and environmental benefits of electrification, the Congresswoman has a clear path forward: uphold the Inflation Reduction Act and advance efforts toward the electrification of the automotive industry.