News/Commentary

Harris slams truckers over ‘poisonous’ pollution as convoy hits DC, declares US at a ‘turning point’

March 8, 2022 | | Print Article

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(Video Credit: The White House)

Vice President Kamala Harris appeared to have timed her attack on heavy-duty trucks and their “poisonous” emissions to coincide with the “People’s Convoy” arriving in Washington, D.C. that will protest not only COVID mandates but the high price of gas and regulations for truckers.

“Pollution from heavy-duty trucks and buses has made the air poisonous to breathe and this pollution is also, of course, accelerating the climate crises,” Harris said during a speech near the White House on Monday. “Threatening the future not just of our communities, but of the entire world.”

Harris was careful not to mention the convoy or the protest. Truckers are planning to encircle DC on the Capital Beltway in the midst of exploding gas prices, a potential world war, and ongoing unconstitutional COVID mandates, according to WTOP.

Harris, who is not known for great speeches, gave a word salad recollection of a California community that she supposedly visited when she was attorney general in that state. She proceeded to blame heavy-duty trucks and public buses for pollution there and a myriad of health issues such as cancer, asthma, and heart disease.

“Heavy-duty vehicles, like buses and trucks, make up nearly one-quarter of all U.S. transportation greenhouse gas emissions, and heavy-duty vehicles are the largest contributor of nitrogen oxides (NOx)—air pollution that is known to cause asthma, heart and lung disease, and other serious respiratory issues. Neighborhoods near highways, ports, and other congested areas are especially impacted by health problems and premature deaths associated with dirty diesel exhaust. These burdens disproportionately impact people of color and low-income households,” the vice president announced in a fact sheet released by the White House.

The vice president has a plan to eliminate all diesel-powered trucks and buses and unrealistically replace them with electric-powered vehicles. The government is throwing billions at the venture to further climate change goals and is doing so as Americans struggle to put gas in their cars, much less afford incredibly expensive electric vehicles.

“Imagine a future: The freight trucks that deliver bread and milk to our grocery store shelves and the buses that take children to school and parents to work… Imagine that they produced zero emissions. Well, you all imagined it,” she delusionally declared.

Harris said the Transportation Department was also releasing $2.2 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act to 35 transit agencies in 18 states to “help communities and bring more transit workers and keep transit services running.”

“Our transportation sector has reached a turning point. We are all in the midst of a turning point,” she remarked. “We have the technology to transition to a zero-emission fleet. Our administration together, all of us, is working to make that possibility a reality.”

“We can clean our air and protect the health of our children. We can connect all our communities for affordable, accessible, and reliable public transportation. We can address the climate crisis and grow our economy at the same time,” Harris asserted.

The Environmental Protection Agency also announced on Monday a new rule that will aim to cut nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy trucks by up to 90 percent by 2031. Truckers are already being put out of business by high gas prices. Many see these regulations as a death knell to the industry that will further destroy an already dying supply chain creating further misery, hunger, want, and chaos among Americans as prices skyrocket and supply craters.

EPA administrator Michael S. Regan proclaimed that the new rule embodies environmental justice, stating that “people of color and those with lower incomes” were “more likely” to live near truck routes.

Harris is pushing $1.5 billion in grants provided through the bipartisan infrastructure bill that will attempt to replace diesel-powered buses with electric buses.

“[W]e have the ability to see what can be, unburdened by what has been, and then to make the possible actually happen,” Harris glibly intoned.

Oklahoma Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin, who is a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, tweeted, “Vice President Kamala Harris and DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg spent the afternoon promoting electric vehicles and Green New Deal policies. Are you kidding me? The Biden Administration could not be more tone deaf.”

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