**Senators Question Feasibility Of EPA's New Vehicle Emissions Standards**
Senators Question Feasibility Of EPA's New Vehicle Emissions Standards
_Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,_ (https://www.theepochtimes.com/senators-question-feasibility-of-epas-new-vehicle-emissions-standards_5204546.html)
Lawmakers questioned the feasibility of new vehicle tailpipe emissions proposals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which the agency predicts will lead to the mass adoption of electric light- and medium-duty vehicles within a decade.
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The April 18 hearing was held by the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate and Nuclear Safety of the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee.
Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey (D-Mass.) lauded the proposals, which the EPA released (https://www.theepochtimes.com/biden-epas-new-vehicle-emissions-standards-sparks-backlash-from-auto-industry-republicans_5190484.html) on April 12.
He suggested that the new EPA standard for light-body vehicles “could be expanded upon,” saying that over $135 billion in spending (https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/10/19/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-driving-u-s-battery-manufacturing-and-good-paying-jobs/#:~:text=The%20Bipartisan%20Infrastructure%20Law%2C%20CHIPS,and%20processing%20and%20battery%20manufacturing) last Congress was being used “to build America’s electric vehicle future.”
_**“Strong proposed regulations are critical to driving climate progress forward, but they are more doable than ever, thanks to the billions in clean vehicle investments passed by Congress,”**_ Markey said.
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_Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) speaks during a press conference in Washington on Sept. 10, 2020. (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Green New Deal Network)_
Describing the advantages of stricter regulations, he argued that “those benefits are a bonanza of benefits to our climate, to drivers, and to our health.”
_**“We need to make sure they also benefit Union-American workers,”**_ he added.
Lummis Questions Mineral Sourcing
Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) and Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) voiced skepticism regarding the EPA’s vision.
Lummis asked one expert witness, Kathy Harris of the Natural Resources Defense Council, whether focusing on tailpipe emissions alone ignored greenhouse gas emissions from the rare earth mining needed to produce electric vehicle batteries.
_**“There have been many studies that have shown that electric vehicles today, from well to wheel, are still cleaner than compared to a gasoline vehicle,”**_ Harris responded.
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_Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) meets with the media in Washington on Nov. 9, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)_
The Wyoming senator also ran through a list of minerals used in electric vehicle batteries, pointing out that China (https://www.theepochtimes.com/in-depth-bidens-ev-plan-could-be-key-to-chinas-global-economic-dominance_5201194.html), Indonesia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo dominate production and downstream processing.
_**“Do any of these countries have anywhere near the stringent environmental regulations the United States has?”**_
“I cannot speak to that today,” Harris said before apologizing and correcting herself: “Not to my awareness.”
_**“I have a rare earth mine in my state that has been trying to open for over ten years and still doesn’t have the environmental permitting to open,”**_ Lummis said.
A staffer for Lummis told The Epoch Times that the lawmaker had in mind the Rare Element Resources Bear Lodge Project (https://www.metaltechnews.com/story/2021/10/13/tech-metals/rare-earths-project-reemerges-in-wyoming/735.html).
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_Soil containing various rare earth elements for export at a port in Lianyungang, China, in a file photo. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)_
“There is no way that the standards and the materials needed to produce and manufacture in the United States can happen in ten years, and to ramp up the supply even in foreign countries that have far lower environmental standards, not to mention human labor standards—this is not possible to do,”…