Dear Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Jeffries, Majority Leader Thune, and Minority Leader Schumer:
Our organizations represent a wide range of stakeholders in the energy, agricultural, and transportation sectors. Together, we comprise the value chain responsible for the production, distribution, retail, and use of transportation fuels. Collectively, we employ tens of millions of Americans—from refinery workers to farmers— to ensure our nation and others around the globe have the fuel needed for our economies to thrive. We strongly support Congress’ efforts to protect consumer vehicle choice by using the Congressional Review Act to disapprove these unachievable California vehicle rules, including those that would ban the internal combustion engine, and would harm American economic and national security.
In recent years California enacted a series of rules, adopted by other states, that mandate the rapid electrification of the transportation sector, including the Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II) and Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rules, as well as the unachievable Heavy-Duty Omnibus rule. In fact, the ACC II rule bans the sale of new gasoline-powered and traditional hybrid vehicles by 2035. These rules not only inhibit consumer choice but pose a threat to our national security through reliance on unstable and adversarial supply chains. Furthermore, California and states following its rules have a national impact on U.S. vehicle fleet offerings by accounting for more than 30 percent of the light-duty vehicle sales in the country, compelling manufacturers to make and sell certain models and engine technologies and not others.
While we support reducing emissions in the transportation sector, forced electrification and unachievable standards are not the only way to accomplish this. In a country as big and diverse as ours, vehicle offerings need to be diverse to meet Americans’ wide-ranging transportation needs.