Democrat Rep. Tim Ryan Called for Banning Gas-Powered Vehicles in 2019

Ohio Democrat U.S. Senate hopeful Rep. Tim Ryan said during his failed 2020 presidential run that 2040 is not soon enough to ban gas-powered vehicles.

During a debate in 2019, Ryan said that 2040 was too long to wait to have a ban on gas-powered cars. “If we’re waiting for 2040 for a ban to come in on gasoline vehicles, we’re screwed. So we better get busy now,” he said at the time.

Later during the campaign season, Ryan went even further during a climate forum by saying the country needs to rely solely on renewable energy by 2050.

“I hope we don’t have to wait until 2050,” Ryan said, referring to Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) call for complete decarbonization of the economy by 2050. “The way things are moving — Senator Sanders and I got into this in the debate a little bit. He was like, banning gas cars in 2040, and in my mind, in all honesty, it’s like okay, great, whatever, but if we’re waiting for 2040 to get rid of gas vehicles, we’re doing something terribly wrong.”

In regards to the congressman’s past comments Jordan Fuja, a spokesperson for Ryan’s U.S. Senate campaign, claimed in a statement to Fox News that the comments made in 2019 were to bring jobs back to America and invest in the manufacturing of “affordable electric vehicles and their components in Ohio.”

Fuja said:

It’s clear that the auto industry is quickly moving toward electric vehicles, and Tim knows that if the United States is to outcompete China, we need to go all-in on creating new job opportunities for Ohio workers by manufacturing affordable electric vehicles and their components right here in Ohio.

While JD Vance has called EV manufacturing a ‘scam’ — a position that puts him at odds with other Ohio Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine and Sen. Rob Portman — Tim has fought to bring auto manufacturing supply chains back home, shore up our infrastructure, and prioritize Made in America requirements, while making sure Ohio workers have a pathway to careers in the industries of the future.

JD Vance continues to write off the future of Ohio’s auto industry, because he either doesn’t know that Ohio workers are on the forefront of this fast-growing field, or because he just doesn’t care.

Fuja was referring to an interview Ryan’s Trump-backed Republican opponent J.D. Vance did in July when he was talking about the climate crisis and saying the Democrats’ push for electric vehicles is a “scam.”

In response to Ryan’s unearthed statements, Vance told Breitbart News the congressman is “radically disconnected” from what Ohioans need and is “more extreme” than Sanders’s 2040 proposal.

“Tim Ryan’s plan to eliminate gas-powered vehicles is radically disconnected from the needs of everyday Ohioans and is even more extreme than Bernie Sanders’ proposal,” Vance told Breitbart News. “This would impoverish thousands of workers in our state, but Tim Ryan is more focused on the fact that it would enrich his liberal donors. The working people of Ohio are going to reject his far-left climate insanity come November.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.