There were culture industry, there were Culture Committee hearing is 4 hours. If we cant. Is an here . I guess whichever. The meeting will come to order. Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a very historic moment for our nation. Who would have thought of it even as soon as just a few years ago that we would have this golden opportunity to provide electricity that would motor our vehicles but was bringing on some serious questions and serious issues so that we know what it will take to make sure people in this country are well aware and will be able to take advantage and enjoy this movement, this Great Movement we are making to transition from petroleum to electricity. I want to welcome everyone to this hearing especially our witnesses because we are looking to you to tell us what this means. What does it mean for jobs . What is the impact that this will have in Rural America if we do not move and make sure those in Rural America can enjoy and be productive from the move we are making. Im sure that none of us want to deal with this as we have with getting Broadband Internet in the communities. If we go back to electricity. It took almost forever to get to Rural America which harvests our food and necessities of our lives, our clothing from textile and cotton, forestry, lumber and shelter. When we deal with agriculture, when we deal with Rural America, we are dealing with the heart and soul of our great nation. Im so delighted to have all of you here, and for us to move in this direction. Also before i get to that getting to basic housekeeping, let me just assure that everyone understands how we will be proceeding after brief opening remarks, members will receive testimony from our Witnesses Today and the hearing will be open for questions. Members will be recognized in order of seniority alternating between majority and minority members and an order of arrival for those members who have joined us after the hearing was called order and when you are recognized, you will be asked to unmute your microphone and each of you will have 5 minutes to ask your questions and make your comments and also if you were not speaking, i ask that you just remain muted in order to minimize background noise and in order to get to as many questions as possible the timer will stay consistently visible on your screen. And now before we begin i want to welcome one of our newest members who has come to be with us, just a few weeks ago and so we want to welcome Chantel Brown from ohio, our newest member, welcome. It is great having you. Thank you. I want to turn to my own opening statement. This is historic. I am so, first of all, grateful, to our staff, for pulling together this hearing and working it, the direction of mrs. Simmons. Ladies and gentlemen. I call her my ethan into. For those of you who may not know who ethan hunt is, a character played by tom cruise in Mission Impossible but the thing here is this agriCulture Committee staff. Mission possible. With major adoption of electric vehicles across the country and the world driven in large part in an effort to mitigate the impact of Climate Change with so many other of our Technological Advancements like i mentioned earlier, electrification, telephone service, and plumbing. I want to see that we make sure that our Rural America is not left behind, as they were left behind in movement to electricity and all the other areas. This is our duty. I want to make sure we can ensure the needs of farming and agriculture. These are our vital producers of food, fiber, so many other areas we are working on. We need to know what impact this will have on movement to biofuels and other areas that our agriCulture Committee is working on. As i mentioned about Rural America, and and georgia has 1500 charging stations, 750 states and district of columbia. Metro atlanta has 1110 of the med us metro areas according to real estate data provider yardy matrix, that this is a major point outside of atlanta. The article says good luck. In Rural America good luck. On i 16 between macon and savannah, a 70 mile stretch of urban america. Drivers pass only four charging stations according to the website. This is why we are here we know we we are getting into. Has anyone who lives in a Rural Community knows, our gas stations, Convenience Stores, often times the pillars of these communities. Many of them dont have the kinds of businesses and providers we have in the urban areas. We need to know what is the impact of these businesses, what would the impact to be . I am also hoping to hear about the positive developments that could come from a more Widespread Adoption of electric vehicles all across Rural America and with so many input costs fluctuating our farmers could electric vehicles also provide one additional stable cross on their Balance Sheet and beyond that and how would this electrification of vehicles translate to tractors, 2 other farm elements, to the huge trucking operations that are vital in our food supply. We hope to finance this today. So many would impact agriculture and Rural Communities. We want to make sure this committee has a seat at the table and the voice of americas farmers, americas ranchers, americas forresters and above all else, rural president s who go to school, who make life livable in rural areas are considered. With that, we would like to welcome our distinguished Ranking Member, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mister johnson, for any opening remarks he would like to make. Quote that i just did it now. Being here in the middle of the week during eight days when we celebrate the largest indoor a culture exposition on the roof of the pennsylvania farm show, it is going to go through this coming saturday. Appreciate this hearing. Electric vehicles are impressive feats of technology and engineering. Substantial industry investment is a testament to the hope they could meet the needs of drivers across america in Rural Communities. And the limitation of liquid fuels has been advertised as a critical component of the global fight to reduce Carbon Dioxide emissions. Im not sure that is completely proven yet but maybe this hearing will help us with that. Last Congress Democratic members of the select committee on the Climate Crisis calls for eliminating internal Combustion Engines by 2035 despite the fact weve been using lees, co2 emissions have been steadily reducing as a result of a lot of what we do in agriculture and this past august President Biden pledged half of all new cars will be electric by 2030. Dont think he should make those decisions for consumers frankly. I am skeptical such planning will meet the needs of the rural residents. Congress shouldnt be picking winners and losers, drivers in the marketplace must decide what Technology Needs for transportation. Especially rural residents for him vehicles and private transportation are an essential service and was asian is different from what we see in densely populated urban areas. The ability to choose insurers vehicles remain a productive toll at not a technological burden to work around. I am encouraged by substantial investments made by private industry but i have a few honest concerns associated with this government first drive to electrify the Transportation System in chief among those are number one who will finance the huge investments in electric generation and transmission capacity so we dont wind up with brown outs and blackouts without significant increase in demand when charging new retail distribution points and all the associated financing. Electric vehicles able to meet the needs of all drivers as efficiently as conventional vehicles without demanding tradeoffs in cost or time of service particularly for rural residents. I would throw in the cold temperatures we are experiencing right now would be a factor. Was with the impact of the transition beyond liquid fuel or liquid Transportation Fuel industry particularly for Agricultural Producers and oil producers, two industries which often form the foundation of regional, rural economies and number 4 expanding electric vehicle manufacturing increase dependence on under regulated foreign nations for the Raw Materials necessary to build ev batteries. Those are fair questions and maybe we could find solutions and answers to them. The cost of these questions must be balanced against the purpose of the policy which is reducing global co2 emissions. That should be the driving force. At the end of the day, the total emissions associated with transitions fails to make a significant dent in global Carbon Dioxide emissions and Congress Must ask whether a National Policy of promoting or imposing evs is worth it. What policies meet our goals in continuing to lower, america has done better, deny 9 countries that follow us in terms of reducing co2 emissions. What can we do to further success at a lower cost and lower flexible would be for consumers. This question is especially pressing for Rural Communities in pennsylvania 15, the cost of building new infrastructure and eliminating record transportation tools. I am not sure President Bidens administration recognizes that liquid fuel money, talk with any township, are critical to maintaining doing the road maintenance in rural roads. Global Emission Reductions for potential disruptions to Rural Communities, implications for costs for infrastructure. As we consider the impact of electric vehicles in Rural America, policies in place to suit the needs of drivers and integrate them into the Transportation System as seamlessly as possible without exacerbating Public Policy problems. I am appreciative of all the witnesses that agreed to testify before us. I want to thank each and every one of them for their time and expertise. I look forward as each of you testify. I thank you for holding this hearing. Appreciate your convening a panel of experts to help us sort through many questions and with that i yield back the balance of my time. Thank you, Ranking Member and the chair would request other members submit your Opening Statements for the record. So witnesses may begin their testimony and to ensure there is ample time for questions and i want to introduce our distinguished witnesses and our first witness is the honorable david strickland. Mister strickland is the Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs for General Motors. Our next witness is Mister Lincoln wood, electrification policy manager of our Southern Company headquartered in atlanta, georgia. Our third witness today is Mister Matthew laughridge, owner and managing director of the terry reed enterprises. On behalf of the National AutomobileDealers Association of cartersville, georgia. Our fourth witness today Mister Trevor walter, the Vice President of Petroleum Supply management. And also on behalf of the National Association of Convenience Stores of altoona, pennsylvania. Our fifth witness is mister jeff cooper, the president and chief executive officer of the renewable Fields Association from alicedale, and our fifth witness is mister josh nasser, legislative director of the International Union of the united automobile, aerospace, and agriculture implementation workers of america. The uaw. Here in washington dc. Our seventh and final witness today is mister mark mills who is senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute from chevy chase, maryland. Thank you all for coming and you represent the Important Industries you all are the ones that will make this happen and we thank you for it. I am so pleased to have such a distinguished panel before us today. Each of you will have five minutes. It should be visible to you in your countdown to 0 at which point your time has expired. Mister strickland, please begin when you are ready. Here we go. To the mute button once again. Good morning. My name is david strickland, General MotorsVice President of Global Regulatory Affairs. I think Ranking Member thompson and other members of the committee for inviting me to tell you more about General Motors commitment to an all electric 0 emissions future in the opportunity of electric vehicle investments for Rural America. A General Motors, our vision is a world of 0 emissions in 0 congestion building an inclusive all electric future is the right thing to do for the world, us competitiveness and 85,000 us employees across the country. We are committed to bringing everybody in on this future. And to make sure we leave no Community Behind which we cant achieve this alone, gm is committed to doing our part. We invest in Autonomous Vehicles by 2025 and planning to launch over the same timeframe. Including option that every price point and every lifestyle, we are increasing range and decreasing cost of ev to make them more affordable and accessible. In addition to the manufacturing incentive we are investing 25 million in the Climate Equity fund which is dedicated to closing equity gaps in transition to electric vehicles and other sustainable technologies. We just relayed a silver ev in my background. The capability for otto customers have come to expect in terms of strength, durability and performance. It will offer a gm s 400 miles and full charge which is from atlanta to albany, and 264 horsepower. Customers in Rural America to satisfy other needs on and off the car. With gms ev portfolio today and those on the horizon which include a range of vehicles from pickups, suvs and commercial vehicles we believe no other automaker matches the depth and range of our portfolio. We are converting large portions of manufacturing ev production, gm is committed to bringing our workforce and dealers on his journey as well as continue to create good paying us jobs. By 25, north american ev is simply capacity will reach 20 , we have announced 9000 jobs, more than 9 billion in new electric vehicle or battery manufacturing facilities in michigan, ohio and tennessee and more to come. Furthermore we are looking to secure the raw material supply chains needed to grow at the scale required. Another aspect of preparing communities is ensuring access charges. Today, charges exist in other areas. Gm will invest 750 million in workplace and public charges, we are developing a Community Charging program with 4000 us to expand access with 40,000 level destination chargers throughout their communities including rural. This is significant because 90 of the Us Population is within 10 miles of gm dealership. These charging stations will be interoperable available to customers not just those who purchase the gm ev. Gm is leading innovation with major charging networks does Cannon House Office building charging experience. Realtime information with 100,000 charging spots throughout the us and canada. To get to an all electric future, to make sure they get confined to the city from coasttocoast. To be gained by leaving ev and battery technology, and with privatesector efforts leading, including investing in infrastructure that includes highway corridor doors and investment for an important first step and to leverage existing usd programs to further that. Investing tax credit went into 5 companies that establish battery manufacturing capacity in the us and to build the us supply chain. And consumer incentive which included modification for the tax credit for new and used vehicles which is proven to be an effective accelerator for adoption. As we in the strategy we have the opportunity to create