Providing Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the Environmental Protection Agency Relating to ``California State Motor Vehicle and Engine Pollution Control Standards; Advanced Clean Cars Ii; Waiver of Preemption; Notice of Decision''

Floor Speech

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Mr. GUTHRIE. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the opportunity to be here, and I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I rise in strong support of the waivers before us today: H.J. Res. 87 by Representative James of Michigan; H.J. Res. 88, led by the vice chairman of the full committee, Representative Joyce of Pennsylvania; and H.J. Res. 89, led by Representative Obernolte of California.

The issue is that it is essentially becoming a nationwide mandate. Article I of the Constitution clearly gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. These are the reasons that I would point to that we need to not have State-by-State standards for building automobiles.

What this is, is you can't build a gas-powered car in Michigan and sell it to somebody in California. California has 40 million people, over 10 percent of our country. When you start having a patchwork of State laws banning cars that can be driven anywhere else in the country, except California says no, New Jersey says no, and Maryland, as pointed out, says no, then it completely distorts national commerce.

If you think about it, by 2035, zero-emission cars in California, the problem with that is, I don't think anybody believes they can get there with that standard, just like the EV mandates by 2032.

What happens, though, these automotive companies have to start building for that. We see the results of it. In my district, BlueOval SK, which is tied to Ford Motor Company, has two battery plants. One they are building. Only one is going to have production in it. They are looking at what to do with the other one. They have that and another one in Bowling Green because they put out these mandates, and businesses have to follow them. When they don't come to pass, it is just not an efficient way to do business.

You have California doing mandates on having to buy electric cars or non-internal combustion engine cars. It is clearly within the purview of the Commerce Clause. It is clearly the responsibility of the national government to set up what the standards are so commerce can easily move across State borders.

If somebody builds a car in California, a gas-powered car in California, I think California has the right to ban their citizens from buying it. I don't think they have the right to ban their citizens from buying cars produced everywhere else in the States.

There are contracts among the States. It is clearly what our Founding Fathers intended. This certainly fits right in it, and I urge my colleagues to reject these policies and support the underlying resolutions.

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