Jimmy Patronis: “obviously, my colleagues are not familiar with northwest Florida and what we call the Gulf of America range. This is a…”

“obviously, my colleagues are not familiar with northwest Florida and what we call the Gulf of America range. This is a place where we train our best and brightest who are defending our country around the globe. Unfortunately, in order to have access to a range like that, you are going to have installations that are going to be on the Gulf of America as they train. As you have anywhere along the United States, coastal cities are going to exist. They are not going away. Unfortunately, electric and hybrid vehicles and saltwater do not mix. I understand the point my colleagues want to make about tactical vehicles, but they are not seeing the big picture. These particular vehicles cannot sustain any type of saltwater flooding. They create a thermal runaway. Fortunately, they may not have experience with what a thermal runaway is where they live, but these are catastrophic events that ultimately affect not just that vehicle but everyone around that vehicle. It ties up precious resources babysitting a fire that does not need to exist in the first place if we ensure that these vehicles are never part of the military missions of the United States of America and the Department of War. Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.”