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Floor Speech

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Mr. RICKETTS. Madam President, 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. It is an unacceptable burden and barrier to our low-income families to be able to get that car so they can get to work.

The second problem is that Biden administration officials have admitted they have no idea how they are going to be able to accomplish their goal. One person I talked to said they are going to run into two big problems: math and physics. They have no idea how they are going to be able to generate and transmit the power needed to be able to charge all these cars.

In fact, on the one hand, while they are trying to get us to use more electric vehicles and have those be charged, on the other hand, the Biden administration is passing rules that are attacking American energy. They are passing regulations for our power-generating plants that, for example, would require 78 percent of coal-generation plants to shut down between 2028 and 2040.

They are blocking the mining of critical minerals as well that we need to build the batteries--so Ambler Road, for example, in Alaska, where there is one of our major copper mine deposits, or think about all the lithium mine resources we have in this country. They are blocking our ability to get the resources and therefore are going to make us dependent on China, which processes between 60 to 80 percent of all these critical and rare earth elements that we need to be able to build these batteries.

There are also limitations on the technology that goes along with electric vehicles. It just doesn't make it feasible in States like Nebraska. For example, EVs are not reliable in cold weather. According to the AAA, when the temperature drops below 20 degrees, EVs' driving range can be reduced by as much as 41 percent.

Nebraskans tell me they feel like Washington, DC, bureaucrats have no idea how their policies will affect them in the middle part of the country. Of our 147 communities in Nebraska, designated cities, 99 do not have chargers. In fact, if you are in places like Valentine or Bloomfield or Alliance, you are 45 minutes away from the nearest charging station. If we are going to set national standards, those standards need to work in every State.

I promised my constituents I would fight these delusional mandates with every tool I have. My Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval would overturn Biden's EV mandate. It is a bipartisan effort that has the support of 48 of my colleagues. In the coming months, every Member of this body will have the opportunity to join in this commonsense effort.

Anyone who votes against these will have to explain to their constituents why they don't want our low-income families to be able to get a job by buying a car or why they don't want folks in rural areas to be able to get to work.

I am confident that our CRA will earn bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate so we can send it to President Biden's desk. I want to thank all of my colleagues who have joined in this effort.

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