Key Vote Alert – House – “YES” on The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, H.R. 1435
The Club for Growth urges all Representatives to vote YES on the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act. The results of this vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2023 congressional scorecard.
The Club for Growth supports the Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act, H.R. 1435. As part of their never-ending quest to force Americans to subsidize the Green New Deal, radical liberals on the California Air Resources Board recently advanced regulations that would ban the sale of cars and light-trucks with internal combustion engines and force Americans into expensive electric vehicles (EVs) they cannot afford. These rules are nationally significant. The Clean Air Act gives states the option of following the emission standards established by California in lieu of federal regulations – and eight states are set to follow California’s lead and adopt EV mandates. This reckless policy would fleece hard-working Americans suffering from Bidenflation, subsidize the Chinese Communist Party, damage the environment and kill jobs.
Despite the expensive subsidies included in the misnamed “Inflation Reduction Act”, the underlying cost of producing electric vehicles make them a luxury item that most Americans simply cannot afford. Dealers cannot move EV’s off their lots, and automakers receiving billions in taxpayer funding are stuck with EV inventories as high as 103 days. Continued mandates from central planners will only exacerbate this reality.
California’s EV mandate will also line the pockets of the Chinese Communist Party. China enjoys a near monopoly on the production of inputs necessary to produce EV batteries. This monopoly guarantees that continued American EV subsidies and mandates will directly finance our most dangerous foreign adversary. Additionally, this production has resulted in high levels of air, water, and soil pollution. Continued left-wing resistance to American critical mineral production ensures that China’s monopoly, along with the devastating environmental damage it causes, will continue unabated.
Finally, continued mandates and subsidies for expensive EV’s will kill jobs. The production of EVs, despite being more expensive, requires 40 percent fewer workers than the production of internal-combustion engine vehicles. Continued displacement of traditional automobiles with EVs will necessarily put hundreds of thousands of working-class jobs at risk.
The Preserving Choice in Vehicle Purchases Act is an important check on the radical environmentalists in charge of the Democratic Party. The bill would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from providing waivers from federal emission standards under the Clean Air Act to states implementing EV mandates through a ban on the sale of internal combustion engines. Club for Growth strongly supports passage of this legislation, which would block the radical overreach of California and the eight other states matching its devastating EV mandate.
Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 118th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.