New emissions standards announced by the Environmental Protection Agency last week, which, if approved, will lead to two out of three cars and small trucks being electric-powered, are "a hand-off to China," Rep. Claudia Tenney told Newsmax on Sunday.
"First of all, America is not ready for it and never will be," the New York Republican told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "This is really just a hand-off to China, [that] we're just going to surrender and say let China take over; let China own our energy industry."
The nation's energy supply is vital to the economy, "our way of life, our prosperity," Tenney added. "This is almost like [now] the Chinese Communist Party is going to control our lives."
Meanwhile, China "continues to pollute," and the nation produces most of the batteries and rare Earth minerals needed to supply the push to clean energy, said Tenney.
The congresswoman pointed out that the far left is not looking at the problems that are already happening, including in California, where there are not enough charging stations for the vehicles that are already there.
"We don't have baseload energy to supply them," said Tenney. "California still relies on fossil fuels. We will always rely on fossil fuels."
The move would also be devastating to the nation's farmers, Tenney said.
"My district circles Lake Ontario," she said. "I have the largest agricultural district and the largest dairy district in the state of New York, which relies on fossil fuels in order to produce our food, to provide the food that we need not just for New York and our region but for trade with neighboring countries."
The state of New York is also trying to push for electric vehicles "way before we're able to do that, and it's not common sense," Tenney continued. "I mean, it's fine to have an electric vehicle if you don't have to travel far or if you don't have to travel in negative 10 degrees [temperatures] or try to make your product grow… it's just unsustainable, unrealistic, and part of it seems almost cultish."
She also noted that most of the nuclear power plants in New York are in her district, but the administration and EPA are "only marginally interested in nuclear power, which is what's going to save us if we try to do this impossible standard with electric vehicles."
The plants are aging, Tenney acknowledged, but "they're emission-free."
New York's state budget, when it gets passed, will push such "unreasonable standards" to the state's small businesses and farmers, who will also suffer from the push toward using public transportation.
"We don't have public transportation in upstate New York like you do in New York City, but the Democrats all want us in buses and trains and public transportation," said Tenney. "I just toured a school district [which] is going to probably have to close, probably because of the electric bus mandate that's coming through."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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