Prohibiting the Use of Funds to Implement, Administer, or Enforce Certain Rules of the Environmental Protection Agency
Floor Speech
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Mr. RICKETTS. Madam President, I am joining my colleagues today in resisting the EV mandate and commend them for attempting to defund this EV mandate.
This mandate would require two-thirds of all new vehicles being sold in the United States in 2032 to be electric vehicles. It is going to be incredibly harmful to our American families, especially low-income families.
The cost to consumers is going to be great. The average low-income family spends about $12,000 on a used vehicle to be able to get around. Frankly, for many families, especially families in States like mine of Nebraska, this is the pathway out of poverty: getting that vehicle, spending that $12,000, being able to get to a job, being able to increase your income. That is how American families get to work in States like mine. We are going to be robbing those families of that opportunity with this EV mandate, harming those low-income families.
It is also going to be harmful for families in rural areas. In States like Nebraska, people drive long distances in rural areas to get to work. Right now, for example, you see that 99 of our 147 cities don't have a charger. If you are in some of our cities like Bloomfield or Alliance or Valentine, you are 45 minutes from the nearest charging station. That is not practical.
Oh, and by the way, guess what. It gets cold in Nebraska. When the temperature drops below 20 degrees, you lose 40 percent of your charge on an EV. So not only will you not be able to find a charging station, you won't have very much charge to be able to get there.
It is harmful for agriculture because you are not going to be able just to pull over on the side of the road if you have got a truck that is hauling cattle and stopped in 95-degree heat for 2 or 3 hours.
This EV mandate makes no sense. It does not work for vast stretch of this country.
Again, I think EVs are cool. They have fast acceleration, and they work in urban areas, like perhaps here on the east coast. But in States like mine, they are impractical.
My esteemed colleague from West Virginia was talking about how the Biden administration has not thought this through. I sit on the Environment and Public Works Committee. I have had the chance to question officials who support this, and let me tell you, they have no plan for the power generation. They have no plan for the transmission. And by the way, just so the American public knows, they are assuming that every EV is charged with 100 percent renewable energy. Folks, that is a lie. That does not exist anywhere in this country where you can find a State that 100 percent of their energy comes from renewable energy.
The highest State for it is South Dakota at 50 percent. States on the East Coast are generally single digits as far as the percent of their electricity generated from renewable energy. So they are also selling you a lie. It is not true.
So for those reasons, I also urge my colleagues to support this Congressional Review Act.
I want to compliment the senior Senators from Idaho and from West Virginia for bringing this attempt to defund this EV mandate. Now that this EV mandate has been published in the Federal Register, the Senator from Alaska and I will be bringing another CRA to stop the implementation of this rule as well.
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