First Orders, EVs Take Hit

Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025

Good morning! A day after the swearing-in of Donald Trump for a second term as president, we look at the possible repercussions for Coastal Georgia of his expected executive orders on electric vehicles and immigration. We finish off with a bulging package of things for your radar. Questions, comments, or story ideas? You can reach me at craig.thecurrent@gmail.com

… and before we get started: Look for regular updates on closings, warming shelters and schools at this link. Stay safe out there.

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NEWS: ENVIRONMENT

Whither the EV market?

Within hours of Donald Trump being sworn in for a second term as U.S. president, his promised “shock and awe” disruption of the federal government — in the form of executive orders — was expected to get underway. Dozens were awaiting his signature.

The use of executive orders has limits: They can be revoked by the next president, challenged in court or checked by Congress. But they lay down a marker, at the very least setting the terms of debate.

Of special interest to Coastal Georgians are the president’s expected orders relating to the environment and the economy, starting with a directive ending what the president has called the “electric vehicle mandate.”

That so-called mandate was a set of emission rules formulated by the Biden administration last spring that, in theory, would require two-thirds of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2032 to be zero-emission.

EVs are currently the only vehicle technology that meets that standard, which bode well for Hyundai’s $7.3 billion EV plant in Bryan County, which only recently started pushing some electric vehicles off the assembly line.

But the future of the centerpiece of Gov. Brian Kemp’s regional development plan seem now be cloudy.

Hyundai officials, already worried about the possible impact of tariffs promised by the president, had no immediate comment about the expected end of the electric vehicle mandate.

There also was no immediate comment from Coastal Georgia Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter.

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee, to which Carter belongs, gathered behind closed doors to discuss what Biden administration climate spending could be rescinded.

Emerging from the meeting, Carter said there were no decisions on what specific programs would be scrapped. “We’re just throwing mud against the wall to see what sticks,” he was quoted as saying. “We’re putting a menu list of things that are available, and then saying, what we can do, and how will it impact our districts.”

Carter’s views, however, appear to align with those of Trump on EVs. Last month, he slammed what he called the “dangerously radical Biden-Harris administration” for “doubling down on its rush-to-green agenda that forces Americans to drive unaffordable, less reliable electric vehicles.”

He added: “We cannot allow a few liberal elites to decide what vehicle is best for a family in my district of South Georgia.”

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NEWS: PUBLIC SAFETY

‘Bound to uphold the law’

Much of the enforcement of the Trump administration’s executive orders on immigration is expected to fall on the nation’s sheriffs, yet while many Republican sheriffs have already enlisted in the effort to track down and remove people who have crossed the border illegally, others are more circumspect.

Chatham County Sheriff Richard Coleman, a Democrat, is one. The newly elected Coleman told Skidaway Island Democrats on Thursday that he’d received a visit earlier in the week from a representative of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whom he didn’t identify.

“You’re the sheriff. You’re bound to uphold the law. Our president is getting ready to initiate these initiatives. We need your help, sheriff,” Coleman quoted the ICE representative as saying.

In his remarks to Skidaway Island Democrats, Coleman didn’t spell out those initiatives that he, as county sheriff, would be expected to enforce, or even whether the ICE representative disclosed them.

But he said he told the representative that as county sheriff, he was bound by the law and would always uphold it. At the same time, he was “a Democrat, with different views.” His decision how to enforce the president’s executive orders on immigration, he told the ICE representative, would be “a constitutional decision for the people,” though what constitution or body of law he was referring to wasn’t clear.

Coleman didn’t respond Monday to requests for clarification and comment.

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NEWS: UPDATES

12 things for your radar

• Glynn County’s new school superintendent, Mike Blackerby, tells The Current’s Jabari Gibbs that growth is afoot.
• Bird flu has become a “serious threat” in Georgia, Agriculture Commissioner Tyler Harper declared late Friday. Poultry operations are the state’s top industry, he said.
• Gov. Brian Kemp was in Washington on Inauguration Day, posing for photos with fellow governors, including his Florida counterpart, Ron DeSantis. Savannah Mayor Van Johnson was also in D.C. over the weekend, too, attending the winter meeting of the U.S. Council of Mayors and meeting with President Joe Biden. He didn’t stick around for Monday’s inaugural festivities, the city’s spokesman said.
• Head of the Georgia Ethics Commission calls the $300,000 fine assessed against the voting rights group founded by two-time Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams the highest ever financial penalty imposed by the commission.
• Liberty County homeowners aren’t happy about their latest property tax bills.
• At this evening’s meeting of the Darien City Council, the manager of the Ida Hilton Library hopes to ask council members why the council’s share of the library’s funding wasn’t paid in 2024, one reader tells us.
• On the impact of possible new tariffs by the Trump administration, Mike Patterson, who oversees logistics for a bicycle importer at the Port of Savannah, says: “We have to plan for reality and hope it’s not.”
• 1^st District U.S. Rep. Earl “Buddy” Carter has been appointed chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s health subcommittee.
• Sen. Billy Hickman (R–Statesboro) has been appointed by Lt. Gov. Burt Jones to serve as chairman of the Senate Committee on Education and Youth.
• Bryan County is the fastest growing county in Georgia and sixth fastest growing county in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019-2023 five-year American Community Survey. Meanwhile, McIntosh County showed the state’s second biggest decline.
• Savannah officials say the city issued a record number of construction permits last year.
• State Sen. Colton Moore (R-Trenton) invokes Martin Luther King, Jr., days after he was arrested trying to enter a joint session of the state legislature for Brian Kemp’s state-of-the-state in defiance of a ban by House Speaker Jon Burns. The speaker rescinded the ban Thursday.

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