Leaning into his chair, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg smirked as he fielded questions about electric vehicles from the GOP-led House Oversight Committee on Thursday.
In particular, he demolished a complaint from Rep. Aaron Bean (R-FL) about whether tax rebates on electric vehicles “were just too expensive.”
“If you think this is too expensive, wait until you find out how much oil and gas subsidies you’ve been supporting,” Buttigieg fired back, grinning ear-to-ear. “Wait until you find out about the economic impact, that some economists have put at $15 million every hour, or every day, or trillions of dollars every year for letting the environmental conditions of this planet to worsen.”
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Earlier in the day, Buttigieg also got into it with Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) over electric vehicles.
Perry asked Buttigieg whether he, and by extension, the Biden administration and the federal government will stop incentivizing consumers to buy electric vehicles, an industry he said was in a “tailspin.”
Perry prefaced his question by citing a study from McKinsey that said electric vehicle sales were down in the first quarter of 2024 due to charging and mechanical issues.
“Tailspin is just a bizarre word to use for a growing sector of our economy,” Buttigieg responded. Buttigieg also explained that he wanted the U.S. to maintain an advantage over the Chinese electric vehicle market.
“I’m happy to have them made in America, secretary, what I’m not happy about is the mandate,” Perry replied. “The American people should be able to buy any vehicle that they want to.”
Buttigieg assured Perry that there is “no mandate” on buying an electric vehicle.
