'Just Plain Dumb': Lisa McClain Calls Out Biden Administration Over Electric Vehicles Push

5 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-MI) spoke about China and the Biden administration rules on electric vehicles.

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Transcript

00:00Ms. McClain, from Michigan, for five minutes.

00:04Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:06I want to get back to the base of the hearing.

00:08I just want to make sure I'm in the right hearing, which is defending America from the

00:12Chinese Communist Party's political warfare, correct?

00:17Am I in that right here?

00:20Okay, great, thanks.

00:22Okay.

00:23I'm going to focus on China, specifically as it pertains to EVs and the economic threat.

00:30Okay?

00:31Electric vehicles, EVs, I believe, make us more dependent on China.

00:38And let me repeat, EVs make us dependent on China.

00:43The United States, unless I'm missing something, does not have the capability to produce enough

00:50EV batteries, the power source, for Biden's EV mandates.

00:56We have to get batteries from somewhere.

00:59And where do we get them from?

01:02China.

01:03Okay?

01:04Or another option is we could let the Chinese battery companies be built in states like

01:09ours, which doesn't really help us national security-wise.

01:14If someone wants to buy an EV, hey, that's great.

01:17That's their option.

01:18They can have that choice.

01:20But you can't force EVs on consumers when the demand doesn't exist.

01:27Our electric grid can't handle it.

01:30Our country can't produce our own batteries.

01:33Currently, some states like California, all we have to do is look at the facts.

01:36I know that's a struggle sometimes.

01:39But they have rolling brownouts, right?

01:42If they have rolling brownouts, how are they going to sustain EVs?

01:46No one can answer that question.

01:48It's abundantly clear to most Americans that if U.S. energy and automotive sectors rely

01:55on China for goods, the United States will have no leverage in negotiations with China.

02:01China will dictate to us.

02:04I don't want to be in that position.

02:06Let me remind everyone, China is not our friend.

02:11Colonel Newsham, can you tell this committee how the Biden administration has allowed ourselves

02:16to become solely dependent on China when it comes to renewable energies, especially

02:22as it pertains to the batteries?

02:25Yes, ma'am.

02:30The Chinese have actually been doing their best to sort of take new technologies and

02:36dominate them, get the supply chains, for a long time.

02:40This has been sort of going on from previous administrations as well.

02:46And what they are saying, of course, with EVs, and particularly an administration which

02:51may be moving too fast to try and push green energy, green technologies, and even force

02:58EVs, that it creates a certain dependency, which works to China's benefit, because as

03:03you stated, they control good chunks of the supply chain, the precursor minerals and materials

03:09that you need to make-

03:10In a nutshell, being dependent on China.

03:12Does that help us?

03:14It's going to kill us.

03:15The Chinese love it.

03:16All right.

03:17You and I agree.

03:18The International Energy Agency has stated that China produces approximately, get this,

03:2175% of the world's supply of lithium-ion batteries.

03:26And what do we need lithium-ion batteries for?

03:30Electric vehicles.

03:32Just recently, the Biden administration finalized a rule that will further force, force the

03:38U.S. automotive industry towards electric vehicles.

03:42I love this concept that the government knows better than the American people what to drive,

03:48what kind of stove.

03:49I mean, I actually believe in the American people, but the Biden administration, they

03:55want to force us and mandate us.

03:57I don't agree with that.

03:58I believe in people, and I believe people can make the right decisions.

04:02Are you concerned that these policies will make Americans and American industry, which

04:07is the backbone of capitalism, even more reliant on China?

04:11Yes.

04:12Wonderful.

04:13Wonderful.

04:14You and I agree again.

04:18What's concerning to me is the draconian mandate coming from this Biden administration is just

04:23plain dumb.

04:24I mean, I still can't get my arms around the government knows best.

04:31Let me share with the American people, the government has innovated nothing.

04:36If you want truly progress, it has to come from innovation, and that innovation comes

04:41from industry.

04:43China is doing everything in its power to overtake the United States on the world stage,

04:48and we're giving them a manufacturing gift that would be devastating to us.

04:56America is a nation where consumers' choice must remain free, and I can't understand why

05:02our government is placating to China.

05:05Wait, maybe I can think of about eight million reasons why.

05:10And with that, I yield back.

'Just Plain Dumb': Lisa McClain Calls Out Biden Administration Over Electric Vehicles Push

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