Ricketts: Winter Storms Showed Why Biden’s EV Mandate Won’t Work for Nebraska
January 17, 2023
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Pete Ricketts (R-NE) slammed President Biden’s electric vehicle (EV) mandates after EV failures during the recent severe winter storms. Ricketts made the comments about how this mandate just doesn’t work for Nebraska while on a conference call with Nebraska media.
“If we’re going to set national standards, we need to make sure that those standards are workable in every state – not just the ones on the East Coast,” Ricketts said. “These major winter storms are a powerful reminder that, right now, EVs don’t have the range and performance needed in cold weather, especially in rural states like ours. Imposing an EV mandate on Midwestern states is unworkable, foolish, and wrong. I urge President Biden to reconsider this foolish policy. Until he does that, though, I will continue fighting against that here in the Senate with every tool I have.”
Ricketts has repeatedly criticized Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) since it announced burdensome emissions mandates that would require up to two-thirds of new cars and trucks in the U.S. to be electric in just eight years. In August, Ricketts hosted policy experts and stakeholders to expose the harmful impacts of the mandates. In October, he released a digital film on “The Reality of Electric Vehicles.” Ricketts also introduced the bipartisan Flex Fuel Fairness Act with Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) to level the playing field and provide a meaningful incentive for automakers to manufacture flex fuel vehicles (FFVs) in addition to battery electric vehicles.
TRANSCRIPT:
Senator Ricketts: “Storms like the one we just saw last week often provide lessons about things government can do better.
“Sometimes those lessons take time to identify, but one lesson from this storm is already very clear.
“As we all know, the Biden EPA wants to make two-thirds of all new cars (and trucks) sold by 2032 to be electric vehicles.
“This weekend, we saw one of the many reasons why this burdensome EV mandate will not work for us in the Midwest.
“And it’s because EVs aren’t reliable in extreme cold weather!
“Reporting out of Chicago this past week showed, “public charging stations have turned into car graveyards over the past couple of days.”
“Also in the story, a driver was calling the EVs “dead robots.”
“Car graveyards and dead robots is not what we want for our future.
“And this happened in Chicago, an area where there are lots of EV charging stations.
“But what about a place like Nebraska, where we have far fewer charging stations?
“President Biden’s own Department of Energy map shows no EV chargers on a 244-mile stretch of highway between Broken Bow and Scottsbluff.
“Many rural communities across Nebraska are more than one hundred miles from the nearest charging station.
“Electric trucks are not practical when you’re hauling livestock.
“You can’t just pull over on the side of the road to charge for two hours when you’re hauling a truckload of cattle in zero-degree temperatures.
“Imagine EV ambulances breaking down on their way to rural hospitals.
“These are very real considerations in states like Nebraska.
“Nebraskans tell me over and over that East Coast Washington bureaucrats have no idea how their policies will impact the rest of America. And frankly, in the last year I’ve been here, they’re absolutely right! The folks here on the East coast do not understand what we go through in the Midwest.
“If we’re going to set national standards, we need to make sure that those standards are workable in every state – not just the ones on the East Coast.
“These major winter storms are a powerful reminder that, right now, EVs don’t have the range and performance needed in cold weather, especially in rural states like ours.
“Imposing an EV mandate on Midwestern states is unworkable, foolish, and wrong. I urge President Biden to reconsider this foolish policy.
“Until he does that, though, I will continue fighting against that here in the Senate with every tool I have.
“I’d also like to thank all the folks who responded to this winter storm. Whether it was our first responders, snow plow drivers, law enforcement, especially the Nebraska State Patrol, I want to thank all of them for their work to be able to make sure that motorists were traveling safely.”