It is widely acknowledged that to achieve real energy security, the U.S. must decrease its reliance on foreign countries for the supplies we need. With this in mind, the Biden administration’s move to transform the American auto market through new tailpipe emissions standards raises serious concerns. The Environmental Protection Agency, under President Joe Biden’s authority, in April proposed the strictest auto emissions standards in American history, standards that some estimate would force two-thirds of new cars and almost half the medium-duty trucks sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be electric. In addition, half of new buses and one-fourth of new heavy trucks sold will also have to be 100% electric by 2032.

While lowering emissions is a laudable goal, the rule would increase America’s dependence on foreign adversaries like China for processed critical minerals necessary for electric vehicle production, a move that threatens America’s energy security.

In the effort to combat climate change, forcing the accelerated adoption of electric vehicles has long been a strategy of progressive policymakers at federal and state levels. However, such mandates come with significant costs for the U.S., both domestically and geopolitically. More electric vehicles means more electricity demand, straining the U.S. grid and potentially leading to electricity rationing or unwanted brownouts or blackouts. Most importantly, it will increase our reliance on foreign nations – namely China – for the critical minerals needed to produce electric vehicles.

Manufacturing an electric vehicle requires the capacity to produce a specific type of battery and depends on a number of critical minerals, including lithium, cobalt and nickel. Today, China controls around 77% of the world’s EV battery manufacturing capacity and has a stranglehold on a number of critical minerals.

For example, the Chinese by 2025 could control one-third of the world’s lithium supply. The Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act acknowledged this by including subsidies to build battery manufacturing capacity here in the U.S., but scaling up critical mineral production won’t happen fast enough to get American battery production off the ground quickly enough. In the meantime, the Chinese will continue to corner the EV battery market using energy sources like coal that create harmful greenhouse emissions.

In short, going too far, too fast with electric vehicle mandates tilts the national security in China’s favor, allowing them to wield their control of critical minerals as a geopolitical weapon. This security threat was recently detailed by the Institute for Energy Research in a report detailing how mandated EV purchases will increase our dependence on China. The International Energy Agency echoed this idea and even amplified it, noting that “the United States is far more dependent on Chinese imports for an increasingly important part of its energy portfolio than it ever was on the Middle East for oil supplies.”

That’s one reason why a group of 12 Republican attorneys general, led by Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia, has called out the EPA’s vehicle emission mandate as a national security risk. As Morrisey explained, “This administration is hell bent on destroying America’s energy security and independence by making us dependent on resources and components that can come only from abroad.”

There are other implications of EPA’s proposal, too. While forcing more electric vehicles onto the road helps satisfy Biden’s push to reach zero emissions by 2050, it will cost Americans dearly. The latest figures show the average price of an electric vehicle is $58,940, compared to the average gas car price of $44,182. In addition, companies failing to comply with these overly stringent rules will pay a penalty that could be in the billions. 

The potential to use electric vehicles to their geopolitical advantage hasn’t been lost on the Chinese, who invested in electric vehicles and supplies early in anticipation that doing so would put them in the driver’s seat if nations like the U.S. needed critical minerals. Instead of ceding this advantage to China, the U.S. would be wiser to organically grow its electric vehicle market while allowing our plentiful oil and natural gas supplies to meet domestic energy demand. The administration should think twice before implementing this new proposal, or any other, that jeopardizes national security.

Bob Carey is a former senior policy adviser to the secretary of energy, former senior executive service program director in the Department of Defense, former national security adviser to two U.S. senators, and a retired U.S. Navy captain.