Congressman Fred Upton on Wednesday led a hearing of the House Energy Subcommittee focused on electric vehicles and what’s going to be needed as they replace gas-powered vehicles in the U.S. Upton tells WSJM News there’s a lot to consider as automakers plan to make more electrics.
“Right now, about a little less than 2% of our national fleet is electric vehicles,” Upton said. “You see them every now and then, for sure, but it’s two cars out of 100. What is the infrastructure? How are people going to get these things charged? There are some fairly ambitious goals, to say the least, of saying they want all electric vehicles to be sold in the next decade or so. It’s going to be pretty hard to get there.”
May 4, 2021
President Biden laid out a list of proposals for new federal spending during his joint address to Congress last week, but Congressman Fred Upton doesn’t think some of them are realistic. Upton tells WSJM News talks on some priorities identified by the president could start soon.
“It’s a little bit of pie in the sky,” Upton said. “This is his wish list for everything. Might as well put it all out there, and see what sticks. But at the end of the day, really beginning as early as next week, I think you’ll see a number of Republicans and Democrats maybe sitting with the White House and saying, ‘Look. What’s doable? What do you have to get done? ”
April 28, 2021
Dredging will begin soon in the St. Joseph harbor thanks to an emergency allocation of $500,000 from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It was requested by Congressman Fred Upton, who tells WSJM News the corps hadn’t been planning to dredge due to it being done last year. But wouldn’t high levels in the Great Lakes make dredging unnecessary this year? Upton says the level in Lake Michigan is down about a foot and a half since last year’s high.
“When that lake level dropped, then you had silt from the Paw Paw River and the St. Joe, it really lodged against the railroad bridge and actually did a little shoaling along the north pier at the end of the pier,” Upton said. “That was going to be OK for the lake carriers. They could have pushed through that. But it was by the railroad bridge that the real issue lies.”
A bipartisan infrastructure improvement package is being worked on by members of the Congressional Problem Solvers Caucus. Congressman Fred Upton tells WSJM