Barrasso: Reality is Catching Up with Biden’s Energy Fantasies

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (ENR), delivered remarks at a full committee hearing to examine federal incentives for electric vehicles .

The hearing featured testimony from the Honorable David M. Turk, Undersecretary of Energy, and the Honorable Adewale O. Adeyemo, Undersecretary of the Treasury.

For more information on witness testimony. Click here.

Senator Barrasso's comments:

“Thank you, Mr. President.

“Thank you for holding this hearing on federal subsidies for electric cars.

“These government handouts are the centerpiece of the disastrous so-called Inflation Reduction Act.

“Almost everything President Biden claimed about the IRA is false.

“And Mr. President, I'm glad you showed those signs that point to the anarchy of the Biden administration when it comes to the law.

“To me, what the IRA really represents is irresponsible, reckless and alarming.

“So, let's start with the cost.

“According to a Goldman Sachs analysis, electric car subsidies in the IRA will cost approximately $393 billion.

“That analysis is 28 times what the Congressional Budget Office estimated.

“Our national debt is now $34 trillion.

“And thanks to the IRA we are about to spend hundreds of billions of dollars – which we don't have – to subsidize electric cars that the vast majority of Americans don't want.

“This is especially true in Wyoming, where electric cars simply cannot compete with conventional vehicles.

“The fact is that electric car subsidies go primarily to the state of California, where nearly 40% of all electric cars in the United States are sold.

“So working families in my home state, Wyoming, and the president's home state, West Virginia, and other states significantly represented by members of this committee are getting stuck subsidizing California's rich.

“The IRA is extortion.

“It is also becoming very clear that President Biden has not thought through the consequences of his so-called energy transition.

“Their efforts to force Americans to power electric cars will cause greater instability – greater instability in our nation's electrical system.

“There is a group we refer to as 'NERC.' It is the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. It has warned of increased risks from the premature closure of coal and natural gas power plants.

“The Biden administration doesn't seem to care. The Biden administration is working to close even more such power plants while promoting a huge new source of demand on the grid, which, of course, is electric cars.

“Just consider that fully charging a single electric car consumes the same amount of electricity needed to power an entire house during peak demand times.

“Does the president have any idea that his calculations are not working?

“It doesn't add up.

“No one really believes that two-thirds of new cars sold in the United States in 2032 will be electric.

“The Biden administration's obsession with these electric cars amounts to wishful thinking on their part.

“That despite generous subsidies, demand for electric cars is stagnating.

“Car dealers are choosing not to sell them and not service them.

“Compared to conventional car owners, electric car owners pay higher repair costs, higher insurance rates, and certainly get less resale value.

“And today's headline, Mr. President, and I ask unanimous consent for the record, is from Bloomberg. We are talking about resale values.

“Hertz reports today that they will sell 20,000 electric vehicles in their return to gasoline-powered cars. So much for Biden's economy.

“So, the first paragraph of this: Hertz Global Holdings plans to sell a third, a third of its U.S. electric vehicle fleet and reinvest in gasoline-powered cars, they say, due to weak demand and high prices. repair costs for your battery-powered options.

“The American public is seeing exactly the same thing and being affected by similar bills.

“The damage the IRA will cause to the American automotive sector is potentially catastrophic.

“In the first nine months of 2023, Ford Motor Company alone lost $3.1 billion on electric cars.

“Losses like this cannot last long.

“Perhaps worst of all is that the IRA plays into the hands of Chinese and other foreign companies.

“You've heard the expression 'follow the money.'

“Well, if you want to follow the IRA money, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act, you'll need a passport because the money goes to everyone.

"Mr. President, as you have repeatedly pointed out, the Biden administration has allowed electric car subsidies to flow to foreign companies in countries hostile to American interests.

“Recently, Chinese automaker BYD overtook Tesla as the world's largest electric car maker.

“In Europe, that company sold more than Tesla in the last quarter of 2023.

“BYD's goal is to be the largest electric car manufacturer in Europe by 2030.

“The administration has said it welcomes Chinese companies as 'big players' in renewable electric car markets.

“This is a terrible mistake.

“The IRA will push us away from fuels and technologies in which the United States has the advantage and towards minerals and technologies that are currently controlled by China.

“We need to change course.

“President Biden wants to subsidize and regulate our path to greater energy security and lower emissions.

“He wants to force the nation to adopt a single technology that only works in certain zip codes.

“That's a recipe for failure.

“We need to return to a pro-US energy strategy that includes all of the above.

“We also need a comparable vehicle strategy that includes all of the above.

“A strategy that includes more efficient internal combustion engines, hydrogen fuel cells, compressed natural gas and hybrid vehicles.

“These are technologies that can increase consumer choice while reducing emissions.

“Thank you, Mr. President.”