Pete Ricketts: “I rise today to join my colleagues in condemning the Biden administration's continuous overreach. Specifically, today we…”

“I rise today to join my colleagues in condemning the Biden administration's continuous overreach. Specifically, today we are talking about the EPA's delusional tailpipe emissions regulations. They are effectively an EV mandate. This delusional rule would require up to two-thirds of all new cars being sold in 2032 to be electric vehicles. I don't have anything against electric vehicles--they are cool to drive--but the Federal Government shouldn't be picking winners and losers in the marketplace. The free market and consumers should drive American innovation, not mandates from the Biden administration. That is why I have introduced Congressional Review Act legislation, along with Senator Sullivan, to overturn Biden's EV mandate. There are a lot of reasons an EV mandate just isn't feasible. My first concern is the cost to consumers. At an event I held last year bringing experts from across the country to Nebraska to talk about what these mandates would mean, one of our experts from Harvard and the Breakthrough Institute told us that auto ownership is the most critical tool for people getting out of poverty. Certainly in a State like Nebraska, that is true. It is the ticket to being able to get to a job. Yet buying and maintaining an electric vehicle is unaffordable to our low-income families. The average low-income family spends $12,000 on a vehicle. An EV costs $53,000. A $7,500 tax credit is not going to get you anywhere.…”