Kentuck Representative Thomas Massie exposed former mayor Pete Buttigieg, now helming the Department of Transportation for Joe Biden, as being “naive” during a lopsided committee grilling.
Massie said he was “alarmed…at the naivete” demonstrated by those pushing for dramatic changes to the country’s energy infrastructure, focusing specifically on a non-binding Biden executive order that called for 50% of America’s residential vehicle fleet and 100% of the federal government’s vehicle fleet to be automatic in 2030.
Massie, who is famously pro-technology, attempted to hit the brakes on the relentless and concerning trend in which Democrats keep pushing for sweeping changes across the nation with seeming disregard for what Massie says will decimate the “middle class.”
“I’ve been driving an electric car for 10 years, and I’ve had solar panels for 15 years that I’m really bullish on technology and the way it could help make our country energy independent, or more energy independent,” Massie opened during his time with the Transportation Secretary.
He then continued: “But I’m really alarmed at sort of the naivete of those who are promoting rapid adoption of these technologies with our existing infrastructure. President Biden signed a non-binding Executive Order stating that 50% of vehicles sold the United States should be electric by 2030.”
To make his point about the real-life issues, Massie then asked Buttigieg a fairly rhetorical question: “So which uses more electricity, we’re talking about residential electricity here, a refrigerator when it’s running, or an electric car when it’s charging in your garage?”
After getting the correct answer (it’s a car), Massie then wondered what would happen to the current grid if suddenly every American were drawing 25 times more electricity to charge their vehicles than they currently use to operate a fridge.
“Well, if we didn’t make any upgrades to the grid, sure. I mean, if we had yesterday’s grid with tomorrow’s cars, it’s not going to work. It’s one of the reasons why we believe that infrastructure includes electrical infrastructure and argued for that to be included, as it thankfully was in the partisan law,” Buttigieg replied in the most bureaucratese imaginable.
Massie later steamrolled the Secretary again, this time citing statistics on energy consumption for the average household vis-a-vis air conditioning use.
“The average household uses 17% of their electricity for air conditioning. And that would mean the average household uses 1,870 kilowatt hours, per year, for air conditioning. If that average household plugged in electric cars, do you know how much more electricity they would use in comparison to the air conditioning that air conditions their whole house?”
“[T]he numbers are important. It would take four times as much electricity to charge the average household’s cars as the average household uses on air conditioning. So if we reach the goal by 2030, that Biden has had a 50% adoption instead of 100% adoption, that means the average household would use twice as much electricity charging one of their cars as they would use for all of the air conditioning that they use for the entire year. Do you think this could contribute to rolling blackouts and brownouts in areas of the country where air conditioning is basically considered essential?
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