‘Free Riding On The Backs Of The Middle Class’: Chuck Grassley Points Out Issues With Biden EV Push

last month

During a Senate Budget Committee hearing on Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) gave opening remarks about the Biden administration’s electric vehicle push.

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00:00And I turn now to Senator Grassley followed by Senator Graham for opening statements

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Welcome to our expert witnesses

00:09Our last hearing was with CBO director Swagle

00:14he was

00:16Welcomed a very welcoming event at this committee and unfortunately a rare opportunity for this committee to focus on

00:25critical

00:26broken budget process

00:30It gives us a chance to

00:32talk to somebody that

00:34Knows that that process needs to be fixed and a primary

00:40responsibility of this committee

00:42It had changed for holding a CBO hearing at my request

00:47I agreed to Senator Graham working with Chairman Whitehouse to put together today's hearing. We'll be discussing electric vehicles

00:56and

00:57barriers to the

00:59fabrication of

01:00America's light-duty fleet

01:03the Biden-Harris

01:06administration's unattainable goal of

01:1050% new EV sales by 2030 has been on full display over the last four years

01:18from the imposing expensive EPA regulations to doing

01:24doling out billions in EV subsidies for the rich

01:29The economic detriment to the

01:32EV policy to America's EV policy is quite evident

01:37Now I don't want to give the wrong impression

01:39EV technology is impressive and works well for some

01:45But Iowans know that there are far more challenges to EV adoption that many care to admit

01:53EVs best

01:54Serve wealthier people who also live in or near suburban and urban areas

02:03Perhaps the most prominent barrier to EV adoption is that the EVs are uneconomical

02:12CBO's February baseline set the record straight

02:16Telling us that the so-called inflation reduction acts EV handout

02:22Would increase the deficit by hundreds of billions of dollars

02:26I also couldn't help but notice that the price of EVs rose immediately after the IRA's

02:35passage to absorb the bills

02:37$7,500 new EV tax credit these EV costs were then of course passed on to the consumer

02:46of course now many had to be

02:50Discounted because they haven't been able to sell them and I've yet to hear a

02:55Comprehensive plan to make EV owners pay into Federal Highway Trust Fund

03:03EV drivers are currently

03:06free riding on the backs of the middle class and

03:11Although some states have instituted an extra fee for so-called fuel efficient vehicles

03:19Making them even more expensive. There are many holes in the rapid EV

03:25transition fantasy

03:27They include a lack of critical minerals needed to produce EVs

03:32lack of transmission

03:34infrastructure needed to support their

03:37increased electricity demands and our current reliance upon nefarious countries in the

03:45supply chain

03:47According to the University of Michigan

03:50the world would need to mine a hundred and fifteen percent more copper from

03:572018 to

03:592050 than has been mined in all of human history up until

04:052018

04:06Just to do business as usual

04:10This copper mining doesn't even include the green transition and the EV

04:18They take three to five times as much copper as a standard vehicle

04:23I hope we discuss where these critical minerals from the so-called EV

04:30transition will come from

04:31China dominates the global critical mineral

04:36Supply chain accounting for approximately 60 percent of the worldwide

04:42production and

04:4385 percent of

04:45Processing capacity and we struggle to permit

04:49federal projects here in America

04:52from wind turbines to transmission lines to pipelines to hard rock mines

05:00Left-wing environmentalists are holding up the permitting reform

05:05needed for the very EV

05:08expansion that they claim

05:11the left claims

05:13Climate crisis but backs away from comprehensive reform

05:18when the environmental law becomes

05:21calling

05:22they also claim to care about air quality and

05:26environmental justice

05:27but ignore

05:29the

05:30unreported and

05:32underreported

05:34particulate emissions from tires under the heavy weight of EVs

05:39Legislators must do better and I hope this hearing serves as a stepping stone

05:46for honest permitting of

05:49dialogue moving forward as

05:51We grapple with the environmental red tape. The Chinese are rapidly expanding coal power plants to fuel

06:00EV

06:01manufacturing boom

06:03I'd like to welcome all today's witnesses invited here by Senator Whitehouse and Graham and

06:09Finally, mr. Chairman, I request unanimous consent to put this article called copper

06:15can't be mined fast enough to electrify vehicles. I

06:20Thank you. I

06:22before you you go on I

06:24Was thinking I mentioned a few

06:27inconsistencies in my opening remarks

06:30but I think of others and maybe it's being

06:34the adjective

06:36unrealistic or

06:38Inconsistency may fit a couple things

06:41But I was the number one producer of ethanol

06:45We have 43,000 jobs in Iowa. And if we had every vehicle

06:50in the United States be

06:53EVs

06:55You could see what that could do to the particular

06:59Job that we created 40 years ago to produce a more environmentally friendly

07:05product then

07:08then petroleum is

07:10we have the inconsistency of

07:14the rainforest being

07:16hacked away to mine nickel in

07:21Indonesia we have the inconsistency of people in the Congress that talk about

07:27We got to stop the use of child labor

07:30Around the globe and yet we have children

07:34mining cobalt in Congo

07:37I mentioned transmission in my opening comment the chairman mentioned transmission, but this permitting

07:45process is

07:46hauled by

07:48environmentalists not wanting to cut red tape here in Washington DC and then you have the silly

07:55Posture of the

07:59In inflation Reduction Act

08:04Appropriating billions of dollars for

08:07for

08:08Charging stations and I guess to date we have about eight

08:12So I I just think there's a lot about this whole process that hasn't been thought out very well. I'm done now

08:19Well, I hope that the hundred twenty five billion in private capital that has been dedicated to this says otherwise

‘Free Riding On The Backs Of The Middle Class’: Chuck Grassley Points Out Issues With Biden EV Push

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