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Floor Speech

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Mr. BARRASSO. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to speak about the President's most recent attacks upon the freedoms of the American people. This week, the Biden administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, announced that it is going to put stringent new limits on gas-powered cars.

In effect, this delusional new regulation is attempting to kill the sale of gas-powered cars in America and, in doing so, try to force every American to buy an electric car.

President Biden seems to want to regulate every room in the house of the American people. He started in the kitchen with our stoves, continued throughout the house, and now he is headed to the garage. This is a coercive crusade, and it is a crusade against consumer choice. It is a crusade against convenience and also against affordability.

Last year, less than 1 in 10 of the vehicles sold in this country were electric vehicles. Under this new rule, Biden is demanding that the EVs make up two-thirds of all new car sales by the year 2032. Apparently, the administration thinks it is smarter than everyone else. They want to pick what you can drive and punish people who choose to drive something different. Why? Well, it is all in the name of the smug superiority of the coastal elites who think they ought to be running the country.

Now, this is the crux of the new Biden car ban. Driven by this blind faith in the climate religion regardless of the cost to our country in terms of energy being affordable, available, or reliable. The costs are real, and they are expensive. The benefits are theoretical, unproven, exaggerated, and certainly burdensome. President Biden is pushing ahead anyway.

To Democrats, what kind of cars Americans drive isn't a practical question; it is one based on theology. Their war against gas-powered cars amounts to what I believe is foolishness at best and leftwing lunacy at worst. Americans reject and continue to reject this unwelcomed intrusion into our lives. They reject it for good reason. They know that this Biden car ban will drive their lives into the ditch.

Certainly, that is the case for the people of my home State in Wyoming. It is bad for the families in my home State. It is bad for the workers in my home State. It is bad for American national security. Farmers and ranchers count on their vehicles. It can be a matter of life and death. People know not to run out of fuel, not to run out of gas. They know what it is like in the winters. They know to always be fully prepared and fully loaded with gas before they head out on the roads in Wyoming.

They want their vehicles to be reliable and affordable. We have, in Wyoming, cold winters, vast distances. Electric cars are not meant to benefit and survive in either. President Biden's push to force Wyoming drivers to buy expensive vehicles they don't want, don't need, and most families can't afford is ridiculous and an abuse of power.

Electric cars are a reasonable choice for some people. They aren't a reasonable choice for everyone, and that is why these new administrative rules are so unreasonable. Electric cars should never be Americans' only option. And no one should be forced to buy a vehicle at a time they can least afford it.

Because of what we have seen with Bidenomics, that time when people can least afford things is turning out to be right now. People are suffering from the costliest regulatory agenda in history and also for increasingly higher interest rates for auto loans. Trying to force families to buy expensive new vehicles they don't want and can't afford is completely out of touch.

It has also become clear that Joe Biden's car ban is going to lead to a steep loss of jobs in the auto industry, particularly union jobs. We heard loud and clear from the unions about it. As the CEO of Ford Motor Company, Jim Farley, said last year, electric vehicles will require 40 percent less labor to make than the typical traditional gas-powered vehicle. According to one estimate, the transition to EV production will kill about 117,000 auto jobs in the United States. Another estimate puts that number much, much higher.

It is already hitting home for some automakers and autoworkers. The owner of Chrysler laid off 1,200 employees at his Jeep plant in Illinois. Ford cut 3,000 white-collar jobs last year. The reason for the layoffs, both companies say, is the EV transition. By pushing ahead with this Green New Deal fantasy, Joe Biden is pushing hundreds of thousands of union workers off the assembly line and into the unemployment line.

Plus, the Biden car ban puts activist demands ahead of America's national security. I mean, that is what is happening. President Biden is rejecting what is needed by American workers to try to appeal to a group of voters influenced by a TikTok climate influencer who visited the White House, met with John Podesta, and is now trying to drive the administration's energy policy.

When we take a look at the electric batteries that are used to power these vehicles, where are they coming from? Well, 80 percent of the world's electric batteries right now are coming from communist China. Communist China controls 60 percent of the critical minerals that are used to make these batteries. When Joe Biden and the Democrats try to force-feed electric vehicles to Americans, it is a recipe for more dependence on the dictators and the despots, including the Chinese Communist Party.

We need to change course. We want to stop Biden's mandate madness. We are working to put American drivers, not Washington bureaucrats, back in the driver's seat for when people make decisions in this country. Americans should be able to make their own decisions about what type of vehicle works best for them and be able to buy it.

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