Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven Bradbury on Tuesday slammed the previous administration for coercing the auto industry to transition to electric vehicles en masse by pushing climate-oriented regulations for four years.

The Trump administration official’s comments come on the same day that the $7,500 tax credit for new EVs and the $4,000 credit for used EVs are set to expire.

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Bradbury, citing the Biden-era update to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, spoke on the current administration’s move away from mandatory clean fuel standards.

“In the previous administration, those standards were used as a regulatory lever, as coercion to force the auto industry to convert more of their production to all electric vehicles,” he said at a Politico event on transportation policy at Union Station in Washington, D.C. He added that the Department of Transportation believes the large-scale transition to EVs “is not consistent with what Congress intended for the fuel economy program.”

First enacted by Congress in 1975, the CAFE standards originally sought to regulate the amount of fuel consumption by gas-powered vehicles in order to make the nation’s vehicle fleet more efficient.

Under the Biden administration, the standards were changed to accommodate its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and accelerating the mass adoption of EVs.

The CAFE regulations will still be enforced, Bradbury said, but they will be “reset” in a way that the standards are “actually realistic to be met” and more in line with Congress’s original intent.

“We’re going to focus on what standards are actually realistic for internal combustion engines in gas-powered and diesel-powered vehicles,” he continued. “This Congress made it clear we’re not supposed to take into account the fuel economy of electric vehicles or alternative fuel vehicles when we set those standards.”

In July, Congress passed the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill Act to roll back civil penalties for auto manufacturers that fail to meet some of the more stringent CAFE standards. The move encourages automakers to continue producing gas-powered cars and trucks.

The bill also sought to eliminate the green energy tax incentives for the purchase of EVs by Sept. 30. The credits for used and new clean vehicles were originally set to expire by the end of 2032.

“Automakers should be able to make [electric vehicles] if there’s demand in the market to support it, but we shouldn’t use regulation to force artificial changes in the market,” the DOT deputy said.

While not inherently opposed to EVs, the Trump administration is not prioritizing EV adoption. It’s instead focused on tapping into the nation’s natural resources, such as petroleum and coal, for more reliable energy.

Meanwhile, China is dominating 90% of the global production and supply of lithium-ion batteries for EVs.

When asked by Politico whether the United States is ceding the EV market to China, an executive in the oil refining industry said the U.S. should play to its strengths by focusing on natural resources.

“Let China do their thing. Since when does the United States follow China at anything? It makes no sense,” said Chet Thompson, president and CEO of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers.

He went on to say that federal subsidies are not the way to make the EV industry thrive.

“Why are we subsidizing wealthy Americans to buy EVs that they were going to buy anyways?” Thompson asked rhetorically. “The way to win this war [with China] is to have the best car.”

He also said new emissions standards should be set by the DOT and the Environmental Protection Agency, not individual states such as California.

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Bradbury also spoke on the nation’s prior dependence on China for lithium-ion batteries and other technologies that require critical minerals, noting U.S. energy independence is a top priority.

“We are just so dependent on China,” he said, “and I think the president sees very clearly that this is a national security chokehold that China has over us in terms of dependency on these minerals to help support these new technologies.”