09.08.22

As Yellen Touts Subsidies For Wealthy Households To Buy Electric Vehicles, Californians Are Begged Not To Charge Theirs

Just As Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen Travels To Detroit To Try To Sell Americans On Subsidizing Wealthy Households To Purchase Electric Vehicles, California Is Suffering An Energy Nightmare Where Citizens Can’t Charge Their Vehicles Or Cool Their Homes And Other Biden Officials Point To California As A Model

 

SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “And in California, state and local Democrats have wasted no time taking things even farther in the wrong direction. Democrats have made California’s electrical grid into a giant experiment to try out all their misunderstandings about energy policy. It’s not going well. With hot-weather demand surging, California authorities are sweating potential shortfalls of up to 5,000 megawatts. California’s love affair with fickle, unreliable green energy could force its residents to put up with rolling blackouts just to conform to wealthy liberals’ preferences. The government had to send out an emergency message begging citizens to ration power. Ironically, just weeks after announcing a future ban on gas-powered automobiles, the state is now begging folks not to charge their expensive electric cars to avoid crashing the grid. So California Democrats don’t want you putting gas in your car, and they don’t want you to plug in your car either. That’s exactly where their war on energy would leave the American people: Going nowhere fast.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 9/08/2022)

 

Treasury Secretary Yellen Is Traveling To Michigan To Tout The Biden Administration’s Electric Vehicle Tax Credit For Wealthy Households

“In a speech Thursday at a Ford Motor Co. electric-vehicle production plant in Dearborn, Mich., Ms. Yellen plans to tout the administration’s efforts to combat climate change and invest in renewable energy, shore up U.S. supply chains and domestic manufacturing and strengthen the country’s infrastructure. … [T]he Biden administration sees the state and the industrial Midwest as major beneficiaries of laws Democrats have championed. Those include the recently passed law designed to bolster the electric-vehicle industry, lower prescription-drug costs and raise taxes on large corporations. Ms. Yellen also plans to highlight laws passed in 2021 and 2022 that provide federal funding for infrastructure projects and domestic semiconductor production.” (“Yellen To Tout Biden Economic Policy In Visit To Michigan,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/08/2022)

 

Democrats’ Reckless Taxing And Spending Spree Is Sending Taxpayer Money To Wealthy Households To Purchase Expensive Electric Vehicles That Cost More Than The Median American Household Makes In One Year

LEADER McCONNELL: “[Democrats] want these job-killing tax hikes so they can spend tens of billions of dollars on slush funds for ‘green banks’ and ‘environmental justice.’ They want job-killing tax hikes so they can finance new handouts for wealthy households earning up to $300,000 a year to buy an $80,000 electric car. Democrats want to subsidize rich people buying electric cars that cost more than the median American household earns in an entire year.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 7/28/2022)

 

Sure Enough, Just After Democrats Jammed Through Their Spending Bill, Electric Car Manufacturers Raised Prices In Amounts Mirroring Democrats’ New Tax Credit

“Ahead of the Inflation Reduction Act extending the tax credit of up to $7,500 for purchases of new electric and hybrid vehicles, Ford and General Motors announced price increases at similar rates. Last week, Ford announced price hikes between $6,000 and $8,500 for most of its lineup for F-150 Lightning electric vehicles, while General Motors upped its electric Hummer cost by $6,250 last month. … Not all the vehicles affected by the price hikes will eclipse the cap. For example, the F-150 Lightning Pro rose about $7,000 from $39,947 to $46,974 but remains below the cap.” (“Inflation Reduction Act Promises $7,500 Electric Vehicle Credits After Ford And GM Raised Prices”, Washington Examiner, 8/16/2022)

 

Meanwhile, California Is Suffering A Power Crisis So Severe State Authorities Are Asking Citizens Not To Charge Their EVs, Just Days After Democrats There Banned The Future Sale Of New Gas-Powered Vehicles

“Heading into one of the busiest holiday travel weekends in the United States, and just a week after approving a bold plan to ban the sale of new gasoline cars, California asked electric vehicle owners this week to limit when they plugged in to charge. The California Independent System Operator, which manages the state’s power grid, sent a Flex Alert asking all residents to voluntarily reduce their electricity use between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and warned that more alerts were possible through the Labor Day weekend.” (“Amid Heat Wave, California Asks Electric Vehicle Owners to Limit Charging,” The New York Times, 9/01/2022)

“California, the country’s most populous state and the center of U.S. car culture, is banning the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles starting in 2035, marking a historic step in the state’s battle against climate change. The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board on Thursday, will force automakers to speed up production of cleaner vehicles beginning in 2026 until sales of only zero-emission cars, pickup trucks and SUVs are allowed in the state.” (“California Bans The Sale Of New Gas-Powered Cars By 2035,” CNBC, 8/25/2022)

California’s Electric Grid Is In Such Dire Straits That ‘The Mere Maintenance Of Electricity In Most Of The State Was Celebrated As A Minor Triumph’

“The power grid teetered on the brink of outages into the evening. But as California endured its sixth day under a ferocious heat dome, the nation’s most populous state narrowly managed to avert rolling blackouts, even as temperature and energy use records shattered on Tuesday and power grid officials begged homeowners to turn down their air conditioning. The mere maintenance of electricity in most of the state was celebrated as a minor triumph after California’s Independent System Operator, which manages most of the state’s grid, issued a ‘Level 3’ emergency alert earlier in the evening, a sign that outages were imminent.” (“California Narrowly Averts an Electricity Crisis Amid Scorching Heat,” The New York Times, 9/06/2022)

“By midafternoon, the state had broken a record, set 16 years ago, for energy use, with demand forecasts topping 52,000 megawatts. At 5:30 p.m., California ISO issued its highest level of alert — the last possible precursor for blackouts, and a few Northern California cities cut power to some areas over the course of about an hour…. California hasn’t initiated blackouts since August 2020, when the state took that desperate step because it could no longer supply enough power to meet demand.” (“California Narrowly Averts an Electricity Crisis Amid Scorching Heat,” The New York Times, 9/06/2022)

In Spite Of California’s Electricity Struggles, Biden Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm Proudly Declares, ‘California Is In The Lead [And] Can Show The Rest Of The Nation How It Is Done’

ENERGY SECRETARY JENNIFER GRANHOLM: “California is in the lead [on climate and] can show the rest of the nation how it is done.” (Sec. Granholm, TEC Equipment in Fontana, California, 9/02/2022)

REPORTER: “So California made national headlines by becoming the first state to say by 2035 we’re not going to have any gas-powered vehicles that are new that are being sold. You can still drive your old ones but you can’t sell new ones. Um, you like this concept?”
GRANHOLM: “Yeah, I do. I think California really is leaning in. And of course, the federal government has a goal, the president has announced, by 2030 that half of the vehicles in the U.S., the new ones sold, would be electric.” (KTTV FOX’s “The Issue Is: with Elex Michaelson,” 9/03/2022)

 

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SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTER

Related Issues: Energy, Green New Deal