WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, released the below statement on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announcing burdensome new emissions standards on American-made vehicles, including both light-duty cars and heavy-duty trucks.
“Today, the Biden administration made clear it wants to decide for Americans what kinds of cars and trucks we are allowed to buy, lease, and drive. These misguided emissions standards were made without considering the supply chain challenges American automakers are still facing, the lack of sufficiently operational electric vehicle charging infrastructure, or the fact that it takes nearly a decade to permit a mine to extract the minerals needed to make electric vehicles, forcing businesses to look to China for these raw materials. They also did not consider that the average price of an electric vehicle was roughly $65,000 last year, more than the household income of 46 percent of American families.
“And, not lost on an energy producing state like West Virginia is that while President Biden is seeking a massive transition to electric vehicles, his administration is doing everything in its power to shut down the coal- and gas-fired power plants that would provide the baseload electricity for those cars and trucks of the future.”
“Today, the Biden administration made clear it wants to decide for Americans what kinds of cars and trucks we are allowed to buy, lease, and drive. These misguided emissions standards were made without considering the supply chain challenges American automakers are still facing, the lack of sufficiently operational electric vehicle charging infrastructure, or the fact that it takes nearly a decade to permit a mine to extract the minerals needed to make electric vehicles, forcing businesses to look to China for these raw materials. They also did not consider that the average price of an electric vehicle was roughly $65,000 last year, more than the household income of 46 percent of American families.
“And, not lost on an energy producing state like West Virginia is that while President Biden is seeking a massive transition to electric vehicles, his administration is doing everything in its power to shut down the coal- and gas-fired power plants that would provide the baseload electricity for those cars and trucks of the future.”
# # #
