Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) on Sunday renewed her attack on the Biden administration and its recently announced plans requiring the U.S. military to move to an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030.
Ernst has been a staunch critic of the White House push for electric vehicles (EVs), which she says require lithium and cobalt, which are often mined and processed with slave labor in China or child labor in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Last year the combat veteran and retired Iowa National Guard colonel succeeded in including a provision in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act prohibiting EV component sourcing from any entity that uses child or slave labor.
On Sunday she returned to the topic.
“You don’t fight a war that way,” Ernst told radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable,” as reported by The Hill.
“This administration has taken it to the extremes with this climate agenda,” she continued. “We are not focusing on the lethality of our American military. Instead, they are focusing on green energy and climate change.
“This is not how we project power around the world.”
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“We don’t have those capabilities here in the United States,” she added.