PALLONE BLASTS REPUBLICANS FOR ABANDONING AMERICAN INNOVATION AND CLIMATE PROGRESS AT ANTI-EV MARKUP

Hearing

"Last week was the hottest week ever recorded. Incidents of drought, wildfires, hurricanes, and extreme heat continue to rise across the country. The effects of these weather events are being felt by our constituents and are costing our nation hundreds of billions of dollars every year. The climate crisis is here, and we must address it while also growing our economy for the future by investing in a clean energy economy.

The transportation sector is a significant contributor of climate pollution, with detrimental impacts on public health and the environment. Decades of ambitious clean vehicle standards have driven historic innovation, delivering cleaner air and better technologies, and positioning the United States as the global leader in cleaner transportation.

We must continue to drive that progress. House Democrats delivered real solutions for cleaner transportation last Congress by passing two historic laws. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law invested in EV charging, clean transportation, and EV battery components, including critical minerals which have increasingly been manufactured overseas. These investments will help build the EV infrastructure needed across the nation.

The Inflation Reduction Act included rebates and tax credits to lower the cost of EVs for American families, including a tax credit up to $4,000 for a qualifying preowned or used EV. Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular every day, and these tax credits are making them even more affordable for American families. And yet, every Republican here today voted against both of these laws and all of these critical investments.

The Republican agenda is focused on propping up Big Oil corporations while undermining commonsense protections from harmful air pollution and attempting to reverse hard-fought climate progress. Republicans would rather continue doing the bidding of their big corporate friends to the detriment of growing our economy for the future and helping to lower costs for American families.

Today's markup is no different. The bills on today's agenda are anti-science, anti-innovation, and anti-progress. They will move us backwards in our efforts of cleaning up and modernizing the transportation sector and would stimy efforts to fight climate change and protect public health and the environment.

H.R. 1435, the "Preserving Choice in Automobiles Sales Act," would turn back over 50 years of recognizing California's authority to set more protective vehicle emission standards. It infringes on the rights of states, like my home state of New Jersey, to voluntarily adopt those standards to protect people from dangerous air pollution. At the legislative hearing, the only witness representing any vehicle manufacturers testified that this bill would cause significant disruption and uncertainty in the U.S. vehicle market, which would hurt our global leadership and consumer access to EV choices.

H.R. 4468, the "Choice in Automobile Retail Sales Act," would bar EPA from finalizing its light- and medium-duty vehicle emission standards for Model Year 2027. This bill also jeopardizes EPA's ability to finalize new vehicle emission standards, effectively preventing the agency from fulfilling its obligation to protect Americans from motor vehicle pollution.

Finally, H.R. 4469, the "No Fuel for Batteries Act," would block EPA from allowing credits to be generated under the Renewable Fuel Standard for renewable electricity for transportation fuel -- also known as eRINs. EPA has been working on this since 2010, following the direction of Congress. This bill would block eRINs produced by renewable biogas feedstocks, such as farmers, landfills, and municipal wastewater treatment facilities from actively participating in the RFS, and would hamper biofuel opportunities across the country.

All three of these bills show how Republicans are willing to sacrifice Americans' rights to clean air and a safe climate. They also show Republicans are willing to abandon American innovation and global leadership in order to support corporations. Reversing our progress on clean transportation and doubling down on fossil fuel dependence would make the United States weaker, not stronger, for the future.

We already have the technology and the ingenuity to be the global leader in clean transportation, lowering energy costs, protecting public health, fighting the climate crisis, and strengthening our economy in the process. But the three bills before us today would abandon our position in favor of maintaining the status quo of putting polluters over people.

I oppose all three of these bills and urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to do the same. I yield back the remainder of my time."

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