Biden Admin's EV Obsession Sends Working Americans' Tax Dollars To China

Floor Speech

"The Biden Administration is continuing to wage war on the affordable and reliable domestic energy that make America competitive.

The Administration's climate policy isn't just weakening American workers and businesses -- it's actually making China's economy stronger.

President Biden's EPA recently issued new emissions standards that, as several of my Republican colleagues on the Commerce Committee pointed out last year, "are so stringent they effectively mandate automakers to produce electric vehicles even if Americans do not want them.'

This move is shockingly out of step with the needs of American consumers, the capacity of American industry, and our nation's strategic interests.

This whimsical desire for universal electric vehicles caters to the preferences of wealthy coastal liberals. But working families simply aren't buying it.

The average EV on the market costs over $16,000 more than the average gas-powered car.

As one auto dealer recently put it, the Biden Administration has been "far too focused on…the well-heeled one-to-two percenters…forgetting about the people where a car is not a luxury -- it's a necessity.'

Sure enough, a $16,000 premium is more than most sensible Americans are willing to pay. Electric vehicles account for less than eight percent of new vehicle sales in the US. Less than eight percent of Americans shopping for a new car are buying EVs.

But that hasn't stopped the Biden Administration from plowing ahead toward an absurd goal: for electric vehicles to make up two thirds of car sales by 2032.

American businesses are not buying this nonsense either. In fact, auto dealers in Kentucky and across the nation recently sounded the alarm bells in a letter to the President. Here's what they said, "this attempted electric vehicle mandate is unrealistic based on current and forecasted customer demand. Already, electric vehicles are stacking up on our lots.'

And just earlier this month Hertz announced plans to sell a third of its electric vehicle rental fleet due to sparse demand and hefty repair costs.

Meanwhile, state utilities are becoming concerned that a massive uptick in EV use could overload power grids that are already on the edge of blackouts.

Talk about a lose-lose proposition. But there is one party that stands to benefit from Washington Democrats' climate scheme. And that's the Chinese Communist Party.

As I've mentioned before, China controls nearly 70% of the supply chain for the batteries required to manufacture EVs.

A Chinese auto-maker just became the world's top seller of electric cars.

And thanks to Washington Democrats' so-called Inflation Reduction Act, leased cars from China qualify for a major tax credit.

This means hard-working Americans like the Kentuckians I represent are directly subsidizing California millionaires and the CCP all at the same time.

So, it's one thing for the Biden Administration's outgoing climate czar to spend his time begging China voluntarily engage in unenforceable green diplomacy.

But it's quite another for Washington Democrats to forcibly create a pipeline that pumps working Americans' tax dollars into the pockets of our biggest strategic adversary.

It's time for President Biden to choose between the American people and a left-wing dream that communist China can't wait for us to realize."

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