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exclusive: Republicans on the House Oversight Committee warn that Biden administration pressure for electric cars Chinese tech companies will benefit and hurt American jobs.
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the 16 lawmakers, led by committee member Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, wrote that they are studying “false claims” made by the Biden administration regarding the impact of electric vehicles on US jobs.
“As a Secretary of the US Department of Transportation (DOT) and an advocate for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles by Americans, [electric vehicles]and your agency is in a position to explain how Ford’s actions are helping American workers and the economy,” they wrote in the letter, first obtained by Fox News Digital.
Define Biden’s goal Electric vehicles will make up half of all auto sales in America by 2030, and the Department of Energy announced in May more than $3 billion in funding to boost supply chains and expand domestic production of advanced batteries in an effort to achieve that goal.
Department of Energy to spend $3 billion on battery production to meet Biden’s goal of electric cars
As a result, according to reports, Ford Motor Company plans to cut up to 8,000 jobs as the company looks to make its way into the electric vehicle market. The company also announced that it will acquire batteries for electric cars from a Chinese company – Confederate Emperex Technology Limited (CATL).
In a letter to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the 16 lawmakers, led by committee member Rep. James Comer, R-Kentucky, wrote that they are studying “false claims” made by the Biden administration regarding the impact of electric vehicles on US jobs.
(Photo by Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images/Poo)
CATL alone accounts for a third of the global electric vehicle battery market. This raises concerns about whether the pressure on electric vehicles over gas-fueled vehicles will make America more dependent on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) rather than on American energy resources,” the lawmakers wrote.
They describe US manufacturers’ reliance on CATL as “particularly worrying” because the company is “influential with the Chinese government”.
The Republicans write: “CATL is considering setting up factories in Mexico to produce batteries for Ford and other automakers. It is worrisome that the administration’s sanctioned future of electric vehicles is already killing American jobs while benefiting China.”
In addition, lawmakers are skeptical of the Biden administration’s “mixed messages” regarding energy policies – blaming companies for “producing too much and not enough oil.”
FILE – Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, center, speaks during a briefing at the White House in Washington, May 16, 2022.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
“You are an outspoken supporter of the shift toward electric vehicles and encourage Americans to make the change. In your testimony before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, you stated that the rise of domestic clean energy production “creates a lot of jobs.” However, actions by Ford confirm that the opposite It is correct, and the most benefitting from the Biden administration’s push for electric cars is not Americans but our foreign opponents,” the letter stated.
Lawmakers are requesting a minister’s briefing before August 31 to address the loss of American jobs and the benefits for China.
During a recent hearing in the House of Representatives, Buttigieg told Representative Carlos Jimenez, Florida, that “the more pain we all experience from higher gas prices, the greater the benefit to those who have access to the electric car.”
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of Energy, previously told Fox News Digital that the secretary “has always made clear the administration’s efforts to make electric vehicles cheaper to purchase so that more Americans can access the economic and climate benefits that electric vehicles offer.” (AP) Photo/Ivan Foci
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
but, Critics said This shows how little the Biden administration cares about the working class.
“We’re working to bring down the costs of electric cars — because when you have an electric car, you’ll also be able to save gas, but you have to be able to afford it in the first place,” Buttigieg explained to Los Angeles’ Big Boys Neighborhood radio program in an interview in July.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of Energy, previously told Fox News Digital that the secretary “has always made clear the administration’s efforts to make electric vehicles cheaper to purchase so that more Americans can access the economic and climate benefits that electric vehicles offer.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Transportation told Fox News Digital that the agency looks forward to reviewing the letter, and it is its policy to respond directly to the committees.
Fox News’ Charles Kretz contributed to this report.
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