North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum at Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate blamed President Biden’s electric vehicle tax credits and green energy agenda for exacerbating the United Auto Workers strike.
The transition to EVs is a major sticking point for the union as it fights Detroit’s Big Three automakers to get five-day pay for a four-day workweek because the climate-friendly machines will require roughly 40% less labor to produce.
“The reason why people are striking in Detroit is because Joe Biden’s interference with capital markets and with free markets,” Mr. Burgum said on the debate stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California. “When you decide that we’re going to take all of your taxpayer monies, take a billion dollars to subsidize a certain type of vehicle — and the batteries come from China.”
Democrats’ tax-and-climate spending law known as the Inflation Reduction Act includes $369 billion in green energy tax credits, including money to manufacture domestic EV batteries and credits up to $7,500 per vehicle for EV buyers.
The Biden administration also is proposing stringent tailpipe emission rules that would force automakers to sell primarily EVs by 2030.
“They’re literally destroying the planet so that we can make a battery that’s in a car subsidized here,” Mr. Burgum said. “That’s why they’re striking — because they need … less workers to build an electric car.”
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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