President Joe Biden announced a stricter set of mileage and emission standards for U.S. automakers on Monday, perhaps in response to Sen. Joe Manchin sticking a potato in the tailpipe of the Build Back Better Act on Sunday.

The bill that Manchin said he couldn’t support contains $555 billion for renewable energy and clean transportation over the next ten years, including tax credits for installing solar panels and buying electric cars. It was meant to be the backbone of Biden’s plans to lower the U.S.’s production of greenhouse gases.

By setting new mileage standards for vehicles, starting in 2023, Biden is doing what he can to keep the U.S.’s promise of cutting its greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the next president could change those standards again, just as Donald Trump loosened Barack Obama’s standards, and Biden has now tightened the rules back up after Trump.

We suspect American automakers would just as soon have some stability in the standards for the next couple of decades. We also suspect they are not averse to working hard to build cleaner running, more fuel-efficient vehicles, because that is what many of their customers want.