Last month, Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) questioned Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on electric vehicles mandates during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing.
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NewsTranscript
00:00The gentleman yields. Mr. Bean is recognized for five minutes.
00:05Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Good afternoon to you. Good afternoon, Transportation and
00:09Infrastructure Committee. And good afternoon, Secretary. It's great to see you. The Biden
00:12administration is on a mission to force consumers to buy electric vehicles that they clearly
00:19don't want.
00:20No, we're not.
00:21Of the $282 million. Well, let me tell you, Mr. Secretary, you are, because the Biden
00:26administration is spending billions, billions in subsidies to force consumers to make these
00:32decisions. $282 million vehicles are on the roads today, 1% are electric, and they're
00:39only buying them because we are bribing consumers with $7,500 to purchase that vehicle. They
00:47sit on the lots far longer on the dealership lots than their traditional counterparts.
00:53And now knowing that these cars are built with slave labor, is there a time that you
00:58will say, you know what, this is just too expensive? This is just too expensive. We
01:02want to rethink this policy. Is there ever a time that you're going to say that this
01:06it's too expensive?
01:07If you think this is expensive, wait till you find out how much oil and gas subsidies
01:10you've been supporting. Also, wait till you find out the economic impact that some economists
01:16have put at $15 million every hour or every day, trillions of dollars every year from
01:23allowing the environmental conditions in this country and the planet to worsen. We are making
01:29sure that there is support for homegrown.
01:32Consumers are saying this, they're saying 46%, McKinsey and Company, a consumer survey
01:36company, did a survey of consumers, 46% that bought these electric vehicles.
01:42Having worked at McKinsey, I got to tell you, it's not a specialist.
01:45Hold on, Mr. Secretary. Are you aware of that? Are you aware of it?
01:48With all due respect to my former colleagues at McKinsey, their study is an outlier. And
01:51even that one does not show that the majority of the people could be great at $15.5 cents.
01:56Why do you think more Americans buy EVs every year than the year before?
01:59I got a good question for you. And I want you to hear me. Because 40 of those, the percentage,
02:06a third said they can't charge their vehicle. We gave you some money, billions of dollars
02:11to build some charging stations.
02:14How's that coming along?
02:15Coming along great. We're going to beat our goals of 500,000 charges by 2030. And the
02:19reason why is because most of the states now have their money and they're getting ready
02:22to do the procurement.
02:23What's the tally right now, though? I'm keeping, last time, last month, it was seven charging
02:28stations.
02:29186,000 public charging stations are available. The publicly supported chargers will go in
02:33the second half.
02:34How many have you built?
02:35Those are coming later. That was always the plan.
02:38Is it over seven?
02:39What's that?
02:40Is it over seven?
02:41They're coming later.
02:42So it's not over seven. I'm going to put you down at not over seven right now.
02:452027, 2028 is when they're supposed to be built.
02:48But here's the other thing. Are you conscious that 80% of e-charging happens at home?
02:51Wait a minute. I got three more questions. You got to go fast, Mr. Secretary. How are
02:54we going to fund roads if electric vehicles aren't paying into the gas tax to build roads?
02:58We know they're heavier. They do more damage than roads. What's the plan? Do we have a
03:02plan? How are we going to build those roads?
03:04Yeah, we're working with Congress on how to make sure the Highway Trust Fund has adequate
03:08sources of revenue, knowing that receipts from the gas tax have been declining for some
03:12time. I don't think that's an excuse to stick with the dirty and expensive fuels of the
03:16past.
03:17Hold on, Mr. Secretary. Let me put you down. I got to put you down. No plan yet. Let me
03:18put that down.
03:19Actually, you should put down something else on your little paper there, which is we are
03:22funding pilots to do vehicle miles traveled. So did you put that down?
03:25When we build roads.
03:26Would you be so kind as to put that down on my behalf?
03:28I'm putting it down right now, Mr. Secretary.
03:31Listen, when we build roads, we use aggregates and other rocks and materials. One of the
03:37companies that has part of their headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida is Vulcan. Two years
03:42ago, Mexico took over their aggregate plant. They just walked in. The government walked
03:48in, took their plant, hasn't compensated them at all. And since that time, aggregate and
03:53building roads and building anything in America has gone up. Is that on your radar screen
03:58of how we can get this plant back or get American assets that was taken over by Mexico? Is that
04:04on your radar screen? Are you aware?
04:06I'm not familiar with this plant, but I'd love to learn more. Pavement is actually one
04:10of my unfashionable passions. I think that if we do better with pavement durability and
04:14sourcing, we're going to do better on our roadway.
04:16If anybody's listening, Mexico took over a company, an American company, without compensation.
04:22And I got one more question, and hopefully we can bring it in for a landing. And that
04:27is turbulence. Everybody knows me, knows I'm scared of two things, clowns and turbulence.
04:33You said turbulence is caused by climate change. I want to give you a chance. Do you
04:41believe that?
04:42Yeah.
04:43Here's the thing. It's just you and I. It's just you and I. You can tell me. You can tell
04:46me honestly.
04:47Sure. So scientists believe that turbulence, especially of the wind shear variety, has
04:51increased as a consequence of climate change.
04:53Listen.
04:54Are you aware of that?
04:55Your National Transportation and Safety Board said, calling it climate change caused turbulence
05:02is hogwash. I love chatting with you.
05:06I'd be happy to send you to study.
05:07I love chatting with you, and I regret that I'm out of time. Thanks for coming. Madam
05:11Chair, I yield back.