Elissa Slotkin hit hard on EV mandates in U.S. Senate debate

Monday night, Rep. Elissa Slotkin made a major mistake in her debate with Former. Rep. Mike Rogers on the issue of EV mandates. Slotkin said that she didn't care what type of car people drove. She said she just wanted Michigan to build those cars. In rebuttal to Mike Rogers' answer on EVs, Slotkin said "There is no EV mandate. I don't care what you want to drive." While that's technically true, it's exceptionally misleading.

According to this article, "The truth of the issue is that there is no mandate but the Biden administration did finalize emissions standards that, absent a change in the rules or some other technology being adopted, automakers could have to make sure two-thirds of all new cars sold by 2032 are zero-emission (i.e., EVs) or face hefty fines." In other words, the Biden-Harris administration didn't pass a bill explicitly requiring auto manufacturers to manufacture EVs. They did it sneakily, writing a rule that leaves the manufacturer no other option but to manufacture EVs or shut the plant down. Check it out:

It's 12:00 minutes in. This is Slotkin talking out of both sides of her mouth:
Slotkin did vote against legislation that would have blocked implementation of those standards − it wasn't clear what they would have been replaced with − but she has also said she would support rewriting those rules if they hurt U.S. automakers (who helped develop them) and that she's against anyone being told what car to buy. But she also defended the rules as a way for U.S. technology to catch up with China's lead in making and selling EVs worldwide. "I want that manufacturing here. I don't care what you drive, I want to build them," she said Monday.
Voting to block implementation of the EV mandate rules means she's complicit in the EV mandates. Period. Anything she does after that is a CYA exercise. Either way, she's hurting Michigan's auto manufacturers. Doing that in Michigan is a no=no. That isn't something that the UAW will appreciate. Pissing off the UAW is the fastest way to end a politician's career.

I'm not predicting Rep. Slotkin's defeat ... yet. This won't help, though. It won't help, either, that Chairman Rogers looked prepared to be Michigan's next senator in D.C. He's a serious man who once chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, aka HPSCI.

Chairman Rogers is fully prepared to be a U.S. senator. Most important to Michiganders, he won't betray the UAW and the auto industry.

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