In remarks on the House floor last week, Rep. John James (R-MI) spoke about California engine regulations.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I now recognize the gentleman from Michigan, home of a large part of our manufacturing base for automobiles, Mr. James, for six minutes.
00:10Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Chairman Guthrie and Griffith, I want to thank you and your staff for your professionalism, especially on moving this important measure forward.
00:19I rise to speak in support of H.J. Res. 87, my resolution of disapproval to overturn the Biden administration's California advanced clean trucks rule.
00:31I, Mr. Chairman, am kind of disappointed but not surprised at my colleagues' lack of understanding for exactly what we're trying to do here.
00:42But I would expect bad faith negotiations here and elsewhere.
00:47But let me just highlight a couple of points that we've heard over the recent few minutes.
00:52Lowering prescription drug costs.
00:53I wonder what my colleagues think about our truck drivers and how their life-saving drugs get to their constituents.
01:00I wonder if they just appear out of thin air.
01:02Or maybe the trucks that carry these things will actually just get there on unicorn tears and hopes and dreams.
01:09That doesn't happen.
01:10We actually need trucks to get our life-saving drug medications to the pharmacies at lower cost.
01:19And if you increase the number of trucks because you increased the number of trucks that you require, because you've increased the payload capacity, you are going to actually do more harm than good.
01:29Let's talk about infrastructure.
01:31Apparently, my colleagues think we're doing nothing to address infrastructure when literally their plan will contribute directly to crumbling infrastructure due to the heavy weight of these trucks,
01:40which could also crash through barriers which would endanger lives, which would also make sure that, I don't know, the number of 45,000 fatalities in this country would increase.
01:51I wonder how many American lives they would sacrifice and alter their Green New Deal initiatives.
01:55Also, literally, how do we pay for these roads, Mr. Speaker?
01:59We pay for these roads with gas taxes.
02:02And the gas taxes that these trucks would not be paying would take directly from the funds that we need to build our roads all across the country.
02:11In addition to air pollution, I mean, you know, Republicans care about clean air.
02:15We care about clean water.
02:16We also care about common sense.
02:18Maybe in California, they can plug their trucks into a tree, but in the rest of the country, we are relying on an energy grid that is still at least half,
02:26at least half relying on all of the above approach, where we have economical, reliable energy, and you're still including things like natural gas and coal.
02:35These are the types of things that happen in the real world, and common sense applies in other areas outside of California, like in Michigan.
02:43We're not afraid of the future, but we demand to be a part of it.
02:45America called on us during two world wars and a global pandemic, and my legislation will ensure that Michigan stands ready to answer the call once again.
02:53My family is no stranger to how important the trucking industry is.
02:58My father started a trucking business with one truck, one trailer, and no excuses.
03:02And then a generation later, I started a trucking company during the COVID pandemic.
03:08He grew up in the Jim Crow South and moved to Michigan in search of opportunity for the American dream, fought tooth and nail harmful regulations and misguided rules that would have prevented his company from ever getting off the ground.
03:21Now, more than 50 years later, his son stands before the United States House of Representatives to continue the fight against harmful regulations and misguided rules that put thousands upon thousands of livelihoods at risk.
03:32This Biden rule is not just bad policy, Mr. Speaker, it's a scam of a decade, putting California's failed EV policies in charge of the entire trucking industry in Michigan and the United States.
03:43Mr. Speaker, does anyone in this chamber actually believe that this is the United States of California?
03:50Perhaps Californians, but in Michigan, we do not want to be dictated by Sacramento, and there are about 49 other states that would agree.
03:58Gavin Newsom may be content with being the number one state for declining population, losing nearly 1.2 million Californians from 2020 to 2023, but, Mr. Speaker, I assure you, I am not.
04:10This Biden-era waiver allows California to ram its comply-or-die zero-emission truck rule down the throat of American trucking industry, essentially gutting the trucking industry all across Michigan and across the country.
04:21It's a Green New Deal mandate that will crush our trucking industry and drive costs up on everything and increase deaths on our highways.
04:30Those are facts. Those are facts. Those are facts.
04:33This policy of left unchecked would mandate truck makers only, only, only, no exceptions, no choice, only sell expensive, less reliable, zero-emissions trucks.
04:46This is going to increase the number of trucks required, which is going to increase the cost of everything from gas to groceries.
04:54The death of the American trucking industry is not just an unintended consequence of this radical California policy.
04:59Mr. Speaker is the goal.
05:02They intend to set unworkable emission standards that will cripple our supply chains and make it impossible for tens of thousands of trucking companies to do business because they're unwieldy and inconvenient.
05:13This policy is unsustainable, unrealistic, and a job killer, and most importantly, is a life-ender.
05:21Telling the Michigan trucking industry and all other industries that they are willing to move forward this policy is unacceptable.
05:29Today, the House of Representatives will send a resounding no to the radical left and a resounding yes to the middle class, to our job creators, to our employers, to our truckers who keep America running.
05:39I urge my colleagues to do simple math, use common sense, and put this Biden-era California waiver to bed once and for all.
05:47With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back.