James Oberstar: “Mr. Chairman, again, this is like, as so often we will see on these amendments on the floor, an amendment that is well…”

“Mr. Chairman, again, this is like, as so often we will see on these amendments on the floor, an amendment that is well intentioned but has adverse consequences. I support the environmental benefits that can be achieved with clean air technologies. In the manager's amendment, the chairman and I have worked on it and our staff have worked on congestion mitigation, air quality improvement, and surface transportation program funds, the largest of the core programs, to assure that these funds may be used to support stand-alone truck electrification technologies, because we saw in testimony in hearings that there are such technologies that are very, very low-weight, with high benefits. This issue came up in the House-Senate Energy Conference, and I addressed this issue in the Conference and raised objections. Mr. Chairman, 400 pounds may seem insignificant, but it will have serious consequences on safety of our driving public and on the roads. Bigger trucks, more road damage. If all trucks had that extra 400 pounds, $600 million a year in extra road damage. Over the life of this bill, that will add up to over $3.5 billion in road damage.”