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--:-- Georgia Howe: I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor-in-chief John Bickley. It's Thursday, April 13th, and this is Morning Wire.
--:-- John Bickley: The EPA announced new emissions regulations that would drastically shift the American auto industry towards going electric. But most American drivers aren't ready to give up gas.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Today's actions will accelerate our ongoing transition to a clean vehicle's future. We discussed the new rules and the challenges.
--:-- John Bickley: And a new drug is being called the King Kong of weight loss medications.
--:-- Georgia Howe: When we start you on a weight loss drug, you are on that weight loss drug for life. How does the drug work and what are the risks?
--:-- John Bickley: Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire. Stay tuned. We have the news you need to know.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: According to a new report from the Labor Department, inflation fell last month to the lowest mark in almost two years, offering slight relief for consumers burdened by years of record cost increases. But a number of other figures showed inflation is still far from the rear view.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Here are the latest economic news and how it's being received in Washington. I'm Daily Wire senior editor Cabot Phillips.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, every month we get these reports and every month it seems there's more bad news. This month, though, shows some good and bad signs. Let's start with the good.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, on Wednesday, we learned that last month inflation eased to its lowest point since May of 2021. The all-important consumer price index, which tracks the cost of goods and services, came in at 5%. That's down from 6% in February and a good bit lower than the 8% rates we saw throughout last year.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The main factor driving the cool down was a moderate price decrease on gasoline. While gas prices actually rose nationwide in the month of March, the inflation rate is determined based on where prices are now compared to a year ago. And in that case, they're down from $4.10 last March to $3.38 this March.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: We also saw moderate relief on airfare, groceries, and insurance costs compared to the year before. And that's a good point to remember about inflation rates. They track price increases over a 12-month span.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Exactly. And that context is where some of the bad news comes in. While 5% is the lowest rate we've seen since 2021, it still means the prices are 5% higher than they were this time last year. And remember, at that point, prices were already 8.5% higher than the year before.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So the good news is all relative because it means things are still considerably more expensive than they were before inflation took hold in 2020. Remember, from 2018 to 2020, the average inflation rate was 2.1%.
--:-- Georgia Howe: As the New York Times put it, this month's report has some good news, but quote, there's still a long road back to normal. And there's more bad news when you look at the other important tracker known as the Core Index, which excludes products with more volatile pricing like gas and groceries. That number was at 5 in March which is actually an increase compared to February.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So not all inflation rates are going in the right direction. That also important because the core index is much more closely watched by central bankers and is often a better indicator of overall economic health.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What sort of political response have we seen from the administration to this new report?
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Well, the White House was quick to tout the report as evidence that President Biden's economic policies are working. In a statement Wednesday morning, the president said, quote, while inflation is still too high, this progress means more breathing room for hardworking Americans.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The Republican National Committee released a competing statement of their own saying, quote, today's consumer price index marks the 23rd straight month inflation has been at or above 5% and the 24th straight month of negative real wages.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: So while Biden celebrated the news, the reality is he's in a tough spot politically when it comes to inflation. And fewer than 20% of Americans say they're better off now than they were just a year ago.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So celebrating one month of partly good news could rub Americans the wrong way when, you know, they're still dealing with the impact of higher costs relative to when you took office.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Yeah, as we're all reminded every time we go to the grocery store.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Cabot, thanks for reporting.
--:-- Cabot Phillips: Anytime.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire's senior editor, Cabot Phillips.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency has announced new emissions regulations that will radically alter the auto industry and the cars we drive. These rules will provide the regulatory foundation for years to come to continue to incentivize the significant investments being made by industry across the entire on-road sector.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Hi, I'm Daily Wire researcher Michael Whitaker.
--:-- Georgia Howe: What can you tell us about the EPA's new rules?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: The EPA's proposal would put a cap on tailpipe emissions, the carbon dioxide and other gases produced by an internal combustion engine. EVs don't produce those kinds of emissions, so they'd be exempt, which would create more incentive to produce and sell them.
--:-- Georgia Howe: One of the stated goals of the policy, according to official sources, is to make two-thirds of new vehicles sold in the United States electric-powered by 2032. Last year, they were under 6%, So that's a tenfold increase in market share over the course of a decade.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: That's even more ambitious than the Biden administration's previous target of making EVs 50% of all new sales by 2030. So a tenfold increase sounds very ambitious.
--:-- Georgia Howe: How realistic is that?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Well, the major issue is that EVs haven't proven to be profitable for most auto companies, aside from Tesla, even after billions of dollars in government subsidies.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The rest are offsetting their EV losses with revenue from their profitable and more popular gas-powered vehicles. Ford, for example, announced that it expects to lose about $3 billion from its EV division in 2023, although it expects to turn a pre-tax profit of between $9 and $11 billion overall.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: As Axios put it, gas-powered vehicles are paying for their own funeral. Automakers are willing to make the switch, especially since regulators at all levels have made it clear that EVs are the way of the future come hell or high water.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But even the most enthusiastic haven't committed to electrifying their fleets that quickly. There are supply chain concerns but there are also significant worries that not enough people will buy these EVs even if we can make them.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: A recent poll from the Associated Press found that only 19 of Americans say that they very likely to choose an EV as their next car purchase compared to 47% who said they were either not too likely or not at all likely to do so.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Did the survey ask why people are hesitant about EVs?
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Well, according to the poll, the main drivers of consumer hesitance are high prices and a lack of charging stations.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The average price of a new electric vehicle in 2022 was about $61,000, compared to about $50,000 for traditional cars. That's according to Kelly Blue Book.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Last year's Inflation Reduction Act included a $7,500 tax credit for certain new EV purchases, and up to $4,000 for used EVs. So the government is obviously trying to close that gap, and advocates of EVs argue that the decreased cost of maintenance and fuel will make them cheaper in the long run.
--:-- Georgia Howe: But as of now, the market's just not there. As far as charging goes, in early 2023, there were approximately 130,000 public charging stations in the United States, but those are not evenly distributed.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: California, for example, has about 30% of those stations, despite making up only 12% of the U.S. population. Rural states like Wyoming and Alaska have almost none.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Even within California, high-income areas have more than four times as many charging stations per household as low-income areas.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: But if EVs are going to transition from a luxury item to the industry standard, then chargers need to be everywhere. In 2021, the Biden administration committed to building 500,000 charging stations by 2030. But experts say we'll need more than a million to satisfy consumers.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And since the average EV can only go about 250 miles on a single charge, they'll need to be spread out across the entire country.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: There's also the uncomfortable fact that as of now, China produces 80% of the world's lithium-ion batteries, a crucial component of EVs. China's dominance in this sector is especially problematic because of how much our relationship has deteriorated in recent years.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Well, Michael, thanks so much for coming on.
--:-- Michael Whitaker: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire researcher Michael Whitaker.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So the two drugs really gaining attention are semaglutide and trisepatide. Semaglutide is sold as a type 2 diabetes medication under the brand name Ozempic. That same drug is also marketed for weight loss under the brand name Wegovy.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Amanda, tell us a little bit about these drugs when they hit the market and what the price tag looks like.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So Ozempic and Wegovy can cost about $1,000 per month without insurance. Trisepatide is the newer drug causing a lot of buzz. As you mentioned, it's been dubbed the King Kong of weight loss drugs for its apparent effectiveness.
--:-- Georgia Howe: It's marketed right now as a type 2 diabetes medication under the brand name Munjaro. That was approved by the FDA last May, but we can expect that trisepatide is going to be approved by the FDA in the coming months as a weight loss drug under a different brand name.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Same with Ozempic. Just like Wegovy and Ozempic, Munjaro is an injectable prescription medicine and costs around $1,000 per month.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Okay, so how do these drugs work and how effective are they for weight loss?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So basically the drugs work to mimic a hormone produced in the gut called GLP-1 to make you feel full and regulate your blood glucose levels Trisepatide is a little different it the first ever GLP and GIP another hormone secreted from the intestine.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Studies on semaglutide which is in Ozempic and Wegovy, show that participants on average cut their weight by about 17%, which is a really big number. But trisepatide was even higher at 22.5%. That was on average about 52 pounds for participants in this clinical trial.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Those people generally had a BMI at 30 or above.
--:-- Georgia Howe: So they're very effective when used for weight loss, it sounds like. But I want to get to the risks associated with these drugs. What do we know about that?
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: So the common side effects are generally nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, basically stomach issues. But there's also increased risk for more serious things like pancreatitis and thyroid cancer.
--:-- Georgia Howe: I'll add that critics are also concerned about the lack of long-term studies on these drugs, specifically when it relates to trisepatide and the significantly higher dose of semaglutide.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Dr. Sean Hashmi, a board-certified internist, nephrologist, and obesity medicine specialist, discussed that thyroid cancer risk based off data from 2006 to 2018 on GLP-1s. The overall risk of thyroid cancer with GLP-1s is very small, but the question is how does it compared to the general population.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Patients who were currently using GLP-1 receptors, they had a 46% higher risk of thyroid cancer than those who were not using it.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Now, if patients had used GLP-1 adenus for about one to three years, they had a 58% higher risk of thyroid cancer than patients who were not using it. And at three years, there was about a 36% higher risk.
--:-- Georgia Howe: And here's Dr. Hashmi issuing a general warning about these trendy drugs. The bottom line here is the risk is not zero. Medications are not a magic bullet.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: Every day I have patients come to my office and they're not looking to eat better. They're not looking to exercise more. They're just looking for a drug and hoping the drug would change their overall weight and magically fix everything. It doesn't.
--:-- Georgia Howe: He also emphasized that if you want to use these drugs, you have to commit to them for life. When you get off of them, your appetite will come back and so will the weight.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: One NIH study showed participants regained an average of 66% of the weight they lost when they discontinued the drug.
--:-- Georgia Howe: The way to be successful in long-term weight loss is to change your lifestyle, to eat better, to exercise more, and to get enough sleep.
--:-- Amanda Prestigiacomo: All right. Well, thanks so much for reporting.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me.
--:-- Georgia Howe: That was Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: The second of two Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will return to the legislature after a Memphis commission voted to reinstate him on Wednesday.
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--:-- Georgia Howe: That's all the time we've got this morning. Thanks for waking up with us. We'll be back later this afternoon with more news you need to know.
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