In remarks on the House floor last week, Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA) spoke about truck mandates in California.
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00:00Thank you, Madam Speaker. I now recognize the gentleman from California, Mr. LaMalfa, for five minutes.
00:06The gentleman from California is recognized.
00:09Thank you. Appreciate the opportunity.
00:12As a Californian resident and also as a California businessman, we have a farm in Northern California where we actually operate three highway trucks.
00:21And I would probably only have two except for state mandates make it to where one of my older trucks, which is a fine running vehicle,
00:30has only allowed 1,000 miles per year to operate under an agricultural situation.
00:37So I had to buy yet another truck that was newer than 2012, 2011, in order to be able to comply with these mandates.
00:46And so soon after when the state has said, well, if you buy a 2011 or newer engine-powered truck, you're going to be good for a long time.
00:56That's until they change their mind and take away what many people did.
01:00It was purchase in good faith vehicles they thought would last for maybe 20 years, 25 years, or whatever their needs are.
01:06Especially talk about mom-and-pop operations that don't buy new trucks with massive turnover,
01:10like operations with many, many trucks in their fleet that run them 500,000 miles and turn them over.
01:17So what we have with these mandates is more and more difficulty to even operate trucks.
01:23And there's an old saying, if you got it, a truck brought it.
01:25Well, in California, you may not be getting it anymore because by the time 2035 comes around
01:30and they ban the sale of internal combustion engine trucks and cars in California,
01:36what are we going to replace them with?
01:38And that takes no account for the great strides that are made to make cleaner running diesel engines
01:45in all these vehicles and gas engines and automobiles and pickups.
01:50With the technology, we have to add this DEF fluid to our vehicles to make sure that they're running in compliance.
01:57And so what credit is given as the transition to more and more of these trucks meeting this mandate
02:04helps deliver cleaner air quality?
02:07No credit is given.
02:08It's just more mandates.
02:09CARB sits down there in Sacramento thinking up more and more mandates all the time,
02:13taking away barbecues and gas-powered stoves and gas-powered everything, even gas-powered generators.
02:19I still don't know what you're supposed to replace a generator with if you can't power it on gas or diesel when the power goes off.
02:25So it's ridiculous what's coming down the pike.
02:29And so where California goes, there's several other states that want to follow as well
02:33because they think we've got it going on with these mandates.
02:36So you take away these trucks, you take away the ability to have diesel-powered vehicles.
02:41Diesel, like it or not, is going to power things for many decades to come
02:44because the technology for batteries and the generation of electricity that's needed
02:49to keep all these going on the grid, I mean, if you have, say, in a neighborhood where three or four cars
02:55and three or four homes are electric vehicles requiring that power supply,
03:00you have to change the power lines and the transformer in the neighborhood
03:03by the time just a few of these vehicles are in place due to the intense load that's required
03:07to fast-charge these vehicles, let alone a truck fleet in a particular area.
03:12If there's, you know, 50 trucks or whatever in an operation all required to be on electricity
03:16and charging overnight, the grid people are going to laugh at you on that.
03:22And this is at the same time as in California, they're removing hydroelectric dams.
03:26They may not renew the nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo known as Diablo Canyon.
03:32They got a five-year extension a couple years ago.
03:35Is it going to go beyond that?
03:36That plant alone represents 9% of the power grid of California.
03:39So they keep taking away the generation of power.
03:43They don't permit the new generation of power except for wind and solar
03:46where they want to turn farms in Central Valley into now solar farms perhaps.
03:50Well, take a look at the Ivanpah installation down in Southern California
03:55where two-thirds of that is being shut down where they have the giant tower
03:58and the mirrors all pointed at it.
04:00That one's being shut down due to the economics on that.
04:03So the economics on renewable power don't work out.
04:05Where's the power going to come from?
04:07Who's going to drive the trucks?
04:08How are you going to get deliveries when these vehicles aren't purchased?
04:11The price of these is two and a half times what a regular truck costs.
04:15Now, if people would pass my legislation on the federal excise tax
04:18making the $20,000 to $30,000 of additional tax,
04:22a tax that was put in place to pay for World War I on the price of new trucks,
04:27you know, maybe people have a little more relief.
04:29But we do not need this mandate.
04:32The federal government should not be giving California more waivers.
04:35Back in the 60s, sure, when things were bad in Southern California,
04:39but air quality has improved vastly due to these vehicles and other measures have been taken.
04:44Agriculture's had the ability to burn its refuse and its clippings and tree removal and all that.
04:51That's been banned in the San Joaquin Valley now.
04:52So, you know, there's a lot of strides or moves being made,
04:56yet they are never satisfied at CARB in Sacramento.
05:00And other states are going to monkey see, monkey do what California does to the detriment of all consumers.
05:05So all prices of goods delivered, the prices of production,
05:10where trucks haul the raw materials and the finished products from a field or a forest or mine
05:16to be manufactured, refined, what have you,
05:20the prices just go up across the board.
05:22We don't have the battery technology to have these trucks go more than really 150 miles,
05:27whereas diesel-powered trucks, depending on how many tanks they put on there,
05:29could go 400 miles.
05:31So with that, we need to reject new waivers.
05:35The gentleman's time has expired.
05:36Put this through.
05:37I yield back.
05:37I reserve.