In a blistering display of common sense and fact-based firepower, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) took a sledgehammer to the Biden administration’s climate agenda during a June 2023 House Oversight Committee hearing—exposing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) push for electric vehicles as out-of-touch, unaffordable, and dangerous to working Americans.
Facing off with Joseph Goffman, former Assistant Administrator of the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, Boebert dismantled the agency’s elitist war on gas-powered vehicles using cold, hard facts. Her message was simple: Washington’s climate czars are destroying the auto industry and punishing average Americans with woke, expensive mandates.
Price Shock: EVs for the Elite, Not the Everyman
Rep. Boebert began by hammering Goffman on the most obvious problem with the EPA’s EV obsession: cost.
“What is the average price of a new combustion engine vehicle compared to the average price of a new electric vehicle?” Boebert asked.
Predictably, Goffman dodged. So Boebert came prepared: “The average price of a traditional internal combustion engine vehicle is \$45,600. For an EV? A staggering \$61,800.” That’s a \$16,000 price gap—and Biden’s EPA wants taxpayers to foot the difference, all in the name of “climate justice.”
Even worse, Boebert revealed that the average price of an EV jumped 22% in just one year, a devastating blow to working families already struggling with inflation. And thanks to new EPA rules, she warned, manufacturing costs would climb another \$1,200 per vehicle.
Cold Reality: EVs Fail in Real-World Conditions
Next, Boebert turned to performance. In freezing temperatures—common across much of America—EVs lose nearly half their charge. Boebert added that long-term cold exposure can reduce battery performance by 41%. And what happens when that EV battery finally dies? It’ll cost Americans anywhere from \$5,000 to \$20,000 to replace.
“Even the tires on an electric vehicle wear 20% faster,” Boebert added. “Over half of Americans have less than $1,000 in their savings account—and you’re pushing vehicles with skyrocketing prices, failing batteries, and faster tire wear?”
Goffman had no answers—because there are none that justify these policies.
Where Are the Minerals Coming From?
When asked to name two domestic mines that could supply the critical minerals needed for EVs, Goffman couldn’t name a single one.
Boebert didn’t miss a beat. She named the Rosemont and Resolution Copper mines—both located in Arizona and both blocked by Biden’s radical green allies. So while the EPA pushes Americans toward EVs, it simultaneously strangles domestic mining—the very industry needed to supply EV batteries.
Child Labor, China, and Climate Hypocrisy
In a devastating close, Boebert laid out the dirty truth behind the green energy grift: child labor and Chinese communism.
“If we don’t mine for these minerals here,” she said, “then where do they come from? From the 40,000 children mining for cobalt with their bare hands in the Congo in China-owned mines. Then we buy those products from China and pat ourselves on the back while they build 200 coal-fired plants.”
Her message was crystal clear: Biden’s EV mandates don’t help the environment. They help China. They help global corporations. And they crush working-class Americans under the weight of higher costs and woke virtue-signaling.
Final Verdict: EPA Is Out of Touch—and Out of Line
“These rules do not benefit the hard-working Americans that I represent,” Boebert concluded. “And I hope that you would reconsider them and the costs that the American family is going to have to absorb because of them.”
Rep. Boebert didn’t just score political points—she spoke for millions of Americans fed up with being lectured to by unelected bureaucrats and green elites who live in bubbles far removed from reality.
It’s time Washington stopped punishing the people it’s supposed to serve. And thanks to leaders like Lauren Boebert, the swamp is finally being called to account.
