Providing Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``California State Motor Vehicle and Engine and Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; the `omnibus' Low Nox Regulation; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision''

Floor Speech

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Mr. OBERNOLTE. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman and my friend for yielding. I rise as the proud sponsor of this bill, H.J. Res. 89, but also as a proud Californian.

This bill would overturn the EPA's waiver granting California the ability to decide for all Californians what cars they drive and what trucks they use to deliver their goods.

This waiver was granted in the waning moments of the Biden administration, and I believe it was shortsighted and misguided.

To be clear, I am not an opponent of electric vehicles, and I consider myself an environmentalist, but I feel strongly that my constituents ought to have the ability to buy for themselves the vehicle that will best meet their needs. For some of them, that is an electric vehicle. For some of my delivery companies, that is an electric truck; but for some, it is not. I believe our country was founded on the principles of freedom and liberty, and that means we are empowered to choose for ourselves about those decisions and not have our government make those decisions for us.

Make no mistake, it is entirely appropriate that we are taking this action here today. Article I of the U.S. Constitution gives this body, the United States Congress, the ability to regulate interstate commerce. As everyone knows, these vehicles, cars and trucks, are not just manufactured for one State, the State of California, they are manufactured for a worldwide audience. It is very much interstate commerce that is at stake here.

Also, let's be clear about this: If it were more efficient or less expensive to deliver using zero-emissions trucks, these companies would already be doing it, but the truth is it absolutely is not. It is more expensive. By forcing this choice on California consumers, we will also be forcing on them all of the concomitant increases in the prices of the goods that they buy every day.

Let me remind you, California already has the worst poverty of any State in the country. Madam Speaker, this waiver would have made it even worse. That is why I think it is entirely appropriate for us to be considering this action today.

Also consider how nonsensical it is for us to run a system of interstate commerce where trucks deliver goods from State to State to State. If we were to allow every single State in the country to establish its own emission standards for those trucks, every one of these goods would have to stop at every single State line and be transshipped from one truck to another truck. Madam Speaker, that is ridiculous, costly, inefficient, and unnecessary.

I believe this body is entirely appropriate in taking this action today, and I strongly urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, H.J. Res. 89, and the other Congressional Review Act actions we are taking today.

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