Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, a bill that I introduced with several of my colleagues on the Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Mr. Speaker, I represent a rural district in California. This bill does nothing more or less than preserving their ability to choose for themselves what vehicle works best for them.

Mr. Speaker, I will tell you that I represent over 100,000 people who commute long distances to get to work and back every day. If electric vehicles were a less expensive and more efficient way for them to perform that commute, they would already own them.

In addition, we have heard testimony that we do not have even a quarter of the copper we would need to convert the current fleet of vehicles to electric vehicles; not even a quarter for the current production year, and that is not to mention other critical minerals, such as graphite, manganese, cobalt, and lithium.

It would be much more efficient to convert our current vehicles to hybrid vehicles that only require a battery one-fifth the size. We can do five times as many hybrids as we could electric vehicles.

Unfortunately, the waiver that is being sought by the State of California would completely prevent hybrid vehicles from being sold in the State starting in the year 2035.

Mr. Speaker, this bill is common sense. If you believe in being good stewards of the environment, which I think everyone in this Chamber does, we should vote for this bill because five times as many hybrids is much better than one times as many electric vehicles.

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