House And Senate Republicans Speak Out Against Biden's Regulations On Gas-Powered Vehicles

4 months ago

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE), Rep. Russ Fulcher (R-ID), and Rep. John James (R-MI) speak out against Biden's regulations against gas-powered vehicles.

Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:

https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript

Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00 Now, electric vehicles are fun to drive if you've ever had an opportunity to drive them.

00:06 But this is a top-down, government-mandated solution to how we reduce our impact on the

00:13 environment.

00:14 And it's going to have unintended consequences that are going to hurt American families.

00:20 For example, there's really four key takeaways I want you to take away from this.

00:25 One is that EVs cost, on average, last year, $53,000.

00:31 The average low-income family spends $12,000 on a car.

00:36 And owning a car, especially in states like mine in Nebraska, we have -- that's a pathway

00:43 to poverty.

00:44 That's how you get to your job.

00:47 And so it is going to harm our families from being able to pursue the American dream.

00:52 Also in states like Nebraska, we're rural.

00:56 And we have a lot of cities that don't have chargers.

01:00 And so it's going to make it difficult for those families to be able to get to their

01:03 jobs.

01:06 We have met some cities that are 45 minutes away from the nearest charger.

01:09 Also, when you hit cold weather, EV batteries lose their charge, which means that you're

01:15 not going to be able to get to your job very easily.

01:17 And certainly, when you're talking about agriculture, on a 95-degree day, you just can't pull over

01:21 for three hours and charge your truck when you're hauling cattle.

01:25 So it's a big deal there.

01:27 Also, this is something that there is no plan for.

01:34 The Biden administration has no idea whether they're going to generate the power or whether

01:38 they're going to do the transmission lines.

01:40 So they don't actually know how this would actually happen.

01:42 And think about this, right?

01:43 At the same time, they want us to buy more electric vehicles.

01:46 And they just issued those rules in the Clean Power Plan that will actually attack our power

01:50 generation.

01:51 So they want us to use more electricity on one hand and stop us from generating electricity

01:55 on the other hand.

01:57 And finally, EV batteries take critical minerals, rare earth elements.

02:03 And China produces anywhere between -- or processes 60 to 80 percent of these.

02:08 And so I'm looking around.

02:10 I'm seeing a lot of young faces.

02:11 For those of us old enough to remember the Arab oil embargo, we remember what it was

02:16 like to be energy dependent on a different area of the world that wasn't too friendly

02:19 to us.

02:20 Why on earth would we make ourselves dependent on our chief adversary in the world, the People's

02:25 Republic of China?

02:27 So as Pete Ricketts, Senator of Nebraska, I'm joined by my colleagues Dan Sullivan from

02:33 Alaska, John James, and also Russ Fulcher, who unfortunately Russ got caught into a committee.

02:38 He can't be here.

02:40 But we are introducing this bipartisan Congressional Review Act to block the implementation of

02:46 this delusional rule.

02:49 I promised Nebraskans that I would use every tool in my toolbox to fight against this delusional

02:54 rule to be able to protect their jobs, their quality of life, and that's what we're doing

03:00 with this Congressional Review Act.

03:01 And with that, I'd like to turn it over to my colleague Dan Sullivan.

03:05 Thank you, Senator Ricketts.

03:07 And Congressman James, good to see you, sir.

03:10 So I think what Pete Ricketts just said is really important.

03:15 It's a delusional rule.

03:18 It's not just light trucks, it's heavy trucks.

03:20 And it's all trucks, essentially, to be EVs within the next, by early 2030s.

03:27 Think about that.

03:28 All trucks to be EVs, okay?

03:31 I was just with a bunch of really smart, young Alaskans on the steps there, part of the Close

03:36 Up program.

03:37 A lot of them are here right now watching this.

03:38 I asked them, I said, "In Alaska, do you think a rule that would mandate EVs for the whole

03:47 country, particularly on trucks, light and big trucks, would that work?"

03:53 My smart, young Alaskans who are here watching this press conference just kind of all together

04:01 just looked at me and said, "No, no.

04:04 Nonsense.

04:06 The young students from Alaska know this won't work."

04:10 We had Secretary Buttigieg up in our state last summer, okay, meeting with trucking companies,

04:16 aviation companies.

04:18 And in a roundtable, one of the leaders of our trucking businesses, transportation businesses,

04:23 a great Alaskan named Jim Jansen, looked at the Secretary and said, "Mr. Secretary, think

04:28 about this, okay?

04:29 We drive these big trucks up to Prudhoe Bay, one of the biggest oil and gas fields in North

04:35 America to produce energy for America, okay?

04:38 You ever seen the show Ice Road Truckers?

04:41 Okay, that's what you're doing.

04:43 40, 50 below zero."

04:45 Jim Jansen looked at the Secretary of Transportation and said, "The EV mandates for trucks will

04:50 never work in this state.

04:53 Never."

04:54 Everybody from Jim Jansen to our great young Alaskans knows this.

04:58 The people in this city don't know it.

05:01 So they're going to try and force on Americans an EV mandate for trucks that has no potential

05:09 to actually work.

05:11 And it's going to drive up the costs of buying trucks.

05:15 It's going to drive up our reliance on China, as Senator Ricketts just said, for critical

05:20 minerals.

05:21 Some of you may have seen, we held a press conference two weeks ago.

05:24 The Biden administration said, "The biggest deposit of critical minerals probably in America,

05:32 called the Ambler Mining District in Alaska, we're going to shut down.

05:37 So nobody can actually produce critical minerals in the great state of Alaska."

05:42 What?

05:44 And now you're going to mandate EVs, trucks, for Americans?

05:49 Where are we going to get those critical minerals?

05:52 Senator Ricketts said it.

05:53 Our biggest adversary, the People's Republic of China.

05:57 We won't get it in America.

05:59 Biden shut down Alaska two weeks ago, but we'll get it from China on a mandate that

06:05 won't work, that'll drive up costs.

06:08 I just want to finish my remarks with a statement from the Owner Operator Independent Drivers

06:15 Association President Todd Spencer about this.

06:19 Here's what he says.

06:20 "Spa business truckers," he's in charge of this association, "make up 96% of trucking

06:28 and could be regulated out of existence if the EPA's misguided mandates come into effect.

06:36 This could have devastating effects on the reliability of America's supply chain and

06:42 ultimately on the cost and availability of consumer goods."

06:47 So this is a mandate that's not only not going to work, it's not only going to have an impact

06:53 on the production of vehicles, this is going to have costs to Americans through supply

07:00 chains that are going to raise prices even more.

07:03 And in the era of Biden inflation, we don't need higher prices.

07:08 Thank you.

07:12 Thank you senators for your leadership and I appreciate the opportunity to speak here

07:17 on behalf of my constituents and where most Americans are.

07:24 Let's just put this plainly.

07:26 Republicans and Americans are about choice.

07:29 We believe very strongly in energy choice and all of the above approach.

07:34 If wind works, if solar works, if hydrogen works, if nuclear works, we should be deploying

07:40 the full resources of the American economic and energy might to keep prices low and to

07:45 keep our adversaries at bay.

07:48 Republicans believe in school choice because we believe that when you give parents a choice,

07:51 you give children a chance.

07:53 And we also believe in vehicle choice.

07:56 We believe if you want a hybrid, get a hybrid.

07:58 If you want an EV, get an EV.

08:00 But most people don't have those choices.

08:04 Most people don't get to pick and choose that they get to spend $53,000 on a new EV last

08:10 year.

08:11 As Senator Rick has mentioned, the average price of new car, $12,000.

08:14 Well, since Biden inflation over the past three and a half years, American consumers

08:19 are spending nearly a thousand dollars per month for basic essentials.

08:23 You do the math there.

08:25 You've priced out the lowest income people, not just from physical mobility, but socioeconomic

08:32 mobility.

08:33 The very same people that this administration is lying through their teeth saying that they

08:37 protect.

08:38 They are literally putting in policies and procedures that crater the lower and middle

08:42 class.

08:44 Their asset limited income constraint employs working poor people in my district who need

08:50 a method of conveyance to take their children to school to get to their second shift of

08:54 work.

08:55 And Joe Biden is pricing them out of their livelihoods.

08:58 There's not one single district that does not rely on internal combustion engine vehicles.

09:04 And this is not an and either or this is and both.

09:07 We must protect our environment.

09:09 We must make sure we have clean air and being from a Great Lakes state, clean water.

09:13 But we have to do so in a manner that doesn't send our people into poverty.

09:19 We must do so in a manner that is responsible.

09:22 And this administration has shown that the only consequences they care about our elections

09:27 in November.

09:28 That's what this is about.

09:30 Joe Biden and his administration are outsourcing and our future, our children's futures to

09:38 to Beijing and to activists.

09:40 That's the only way this makes sense.

09:43 When you look at China, where we get our critical minerals, when you look at where their mind

09:47 and refined, you look their mind in the worst human rights environments in the dirtiest

09:53 methods possible in the Congo region, and they say black lives matter.

09:57 We'll prove it.

09:59 Let's clean up these supply.

10:00 You see what those mines look like.

10:03 You've seen the videos of children using their hands in these artisanal mines.

10:07 This is what we're talking about.

10:09 There's no oversight here.

10:10 This is why I put my bridge to DRC act to make sure that in addition to reassuring our

10:16 critical mineral supply chain, we're also addressing the human rights issues with our

10:19 battery supply chains as well.

10:21 We have to make sure we're doing both and we have to make sure that these policies make

10:25 sense all over the country.

10:27 We have grid issues.

10:29 We have brownouts during the summer and blackouts during the winter.

10:33 We have an aging grid and you say we're going to be plugging these things in while your

10:38 regulations are inhibiting new natural gas facilities, their power generation that could

10:44 bring 1200 megawatts online in the state of Michigan in the span of a couple of years.

10:49 And you're saying no to that because you think we're going to plug our Evie into a tree.

10:53 We're not stupid.

10:55 The American people know better.

10:58 We can't afford these policies and it's going to be more impactful than just your election.

11:04 And so we got sent here to fight for people who can't fight for themselves, to speak for

11:08 people who can't speak for themselves and to stand people who can't stand for themselves

11:12 and surely cannot stand this administration's policies.

11:16 We're here to protect American jobs.

11:18 We're here to build bridges with people who are willing to build bridges with us.

11:22 We're here not just to make sure that we're not outsourcing our futures to Mexico and

11:26 China, but to make sure that jobs can stay in the Michigan's 10th congressional district,

11:30 the number one manufacturing district in the entire nation, where there are layoffs happening

11:34 with American auto workers because this administration is sending their wages and sending their pensions

11:39 and sending their bonuses to other countries.

11:41 I had the opportunity to question Secretary Buttigieg.

11:44 And I asked him directly, I asked him what's going to happen when the penalties that you

11:48 levy on American businesses, General Motors, Atlantis, Ford, that constitute 50%, 5-0%

11:55 of Michigan's GDP, what's going to happen when your penalties for standards you know

11:59 we can't hit, when that happens, what's going to happen to UAW's benefits?

12:03 He didn't have an answer, but he had his talking points.

12:06 Well, talking points from Washington, D.C. aren't good enough anymore.

12:11 We are standing up to this administration that is so divorced from the reality of the

12:15 American people that it requires the legislators who you sent here to stand up and fight for

12:20 your behalf.

12:21 So it is my honor to stand next to these true blue Americans, to stand up for your rights

12:25 and for your vehicle choice.

12:28 Thank you so much.

12:29 Dang, Congressman James, we're going to have to have you back more often.

12:34 You're really good.

12:35 You had notes?

12:36 Hey, I tried.

12:37 I tried.

12:38 Well, again, you can see the problems that this EV mandate has.

12:43 I was talking to one person who said the Biden administration is going to run into two big

12:47 problems with this EV mandate, math and physics.

12:50 As we have described, this is just not workable.

12:53 It's not going to be good for our American families, and it's especially going to harm

12:56 our low-income families in this country as it drives up the cost of used cars, which

13:01 is how folks get to work.

13:05 It's how they take care of their families.

13:07 And you heard all the other issues.

13:09 And here's the kicker, folks.

13:10 In this country, we solve our problems with innovation.

13:14 We have companies that can figure out how to do this without a one-size-fit-all answer

13:21 from this administration.

13:24 So that's why we're here.

13:25 I appreciate Congressman James.

13:27 I had to go to his next thing.

13:29 Appreciate it, Senator Sullivan.

13:30 Appreciate Congressman Fulcher for helping with this Congressional Review Act.

13:34 At this point, we'd go ahead and like to take questions from the press.

13:48 So we're going to be introducing this Congressional Review Act.

13:52 Leader Schumer will ultimately decide when it comes to the floor, but he is going to

13:54 have to bring it to the floor, and it has to be within how many -- 60 session days.

14:01 And by the way, already we know it has bipartisan support.

14:05 I did a press conference with Senator Manchin in Houston a couple weeks ago.

14:11 He is fully supportive.

14:13 I think it's likely we'll get other Democrats to support this because they're hearing from

14:19 their constituents.

14:20 And as you heard today, this is a rule that doesn't make sense.

14:25 So it's very likely it'll pass, almost certainly in the House.

14:29 Very likely it'll pass in the Senate.

14:33 And then we'll see if Joe Biden vetoes what the vast majority of the members of the House

14:39 and Senate want, which is they don't want his rule.

14:42 So it'll be on his desk, and we'll see if he vetoes it.

14:44 [BLANK_AUDIO]

House And Senate Republicans Speak Out Against Biden's Regulations On Gas-Powered Vehicles

Category

Transcript

Recommended